Solar panels that work without the sun; they create plates that also produce energy at night

2 minutes read

a way to produce environmentally friendly energy it is through the solar panelshowever, as their name indicates, they can only obtain energy from the sun, making their production limitations clear at night, which is why a researcher from the Stanford University works so that the panels also work under the stars.

Sid Assawaworrarit together with a team of engineers, managed to make photovoltaic panels they can continue producing energy even if the sun is not there, that is, during the night. This has been thanks to a thermoelectric generator.

With this progress they hope that all the current plates of the solar panels can be replacedso that energy is generated 24 hours a day and during the night they not only become suppliers of electricity.

The panels, in order to supply energy, need batteries that store everything they captured during the day. However, those batteries have an expiration date, and when they run out they must be replaced with new ones. In contrast, the panels Assawaworrarit devised do not require such batteries, so they too will help solve this waste problem.

The board, by continuing to produce power at night, no longer needs batteries. During the tests, the Stanford engineering team took advantage of the clear nights and good weather in California to test their research. Under these conditions, they found that They can convert infrared light that travels through the air into electricity.

They also used a thermoelectric generator together with a conventional photovoltaic panel, to be able to vary the temperature of the panel surface influenced by the environment. They also took the opportunity to differentiate the temperature of the solar panel with that of the air and cause it to be absorbed by the plate to convert it into electricity. Usually Solar panels use silicon.

After their tests, they recorded that with these panels they could generate 50 milliwatts per square meter of solar panel during the night. However, Assawaworrarit and her team agreed that the optical conditions can eventually generate more power.

Even though the amount of energy it produces is less than that of a solar panel working during the day, which is between 250 W and 300 W, these plates can be used for various purposes. For example, it could power environmental sensors and thereby extend the life of the board, since among its objectives is not to include a battery that must be replaced.

This study is not the first to look for an option to continue producing energy even if there is no sunlight, as other scientists at the University of California they pointed out in years past that they had been able to carry out the same experiment.

Unlike the Stanford researchers, they used a thermo-additive cellwhich they said is capable ofe generate electricity through radiative coolingwhere infrared or heat radiation leaves the cell and produces energy.

Those thermo-additive cells were being tested. Unlike the other square, this one takes advantage of the cold of the night sky to carry out the process of obtaining energy. “In these new devices, light is emitted and current and voltage go in the opposite direction. but it still generates power,” said Jeremy Munday in ScienceAlert.

David

2 minutes read