Introduction
Solar power became popular for its ability to combat climate change by reducing air pollution, water usage, and decreasing reliance on non-renewable sources. As a plus, it saves on electric bills and offers the exciting prospect of becoming self-sufficient.
All you need is the sun, right? Because when you think of solar energy, you think of energy acquired from the sun during daylight. So it may seem absurd or downright impossible that when the sun goes down, solar panels can still draw on energy. Well, thanks to modern science, the development of a nighttime solar cell is in the works.
How Does Solar Power Usually Work?
Solar power is produced by solar panels using photovoltaic cells. These cells are designed to take photons, or energy particles, into electrons. The electrons are then converted into DC electricity (direct current) after passing through the photovoltaic cells. Once completed, it goes through an inverter and is finally converted into AC electricity (alternating current).
This can be observed using one of the most complex solar devices: solar panels. Using solar panels, AC electricity could power an entire house; the unique thing about this way of making energy is that it doesn’t need to connect to the electrical grid, though solar panels can operate on a grid, too. For homes, it can do several things such as charge devices, power appliances, and even the AC system.
Solar panels come in a variety of forms to adjust to commercial selling: most are installed on roofs, but quite a few can be placed on the ground, over parking lots, and replace roofing material altogether. Some are even designed to work in tandem with the rotation of the sun. But that feature may no longer be necessary with the arrival of nighttime solar cells.
So What is Nighttime Solar Power and How Does it Work?
This concept is different from a solar panel’s ability to store energy and can affect homeowners and businesses all over the country. Nighttime solar panels will have a cell that makes electricity in a different way. These unique cells use radioactive cooling that allows radioactive heat to generate electricity.
The mechanism works in the complete inverse of a typical solar cell. Part of solar panels’ effectiveness is that they can take on the sun’s heat while still being operational. Like most devices, they can’t function well when they overheat.
And around the same time that nighttime solar cells were announced, solar panels were improved to absorb water from the air, thereby increasing self-sufficiency and power output. Nighttime solar panels are the opposite: they’ll release heat. And the hotter the object is, the more infrared radiation it produces. This process is called thermal radiation.
This technology isn’t new, either. There are thermoradiative devices that absorb wasted heat from generators to create thermal energy. Specifically, nighttime solar panels will use the heat they emit and the coldness of outer space to produce infrared light. Using the same physics as regular solar technology, infrared light will produce electricity via photons. It cannot, however, do so using the same materials.
Conclusion
Thermoradiative photovoltaic cells in solar panels could create an all-day energy source such as that of an electrical grid. It could also revolutionize solar power as more than just a backup power source for large homes and buildings and cut costs of several solar panel installments. The downside is that it’s a long road to creating an “anti-solar cell” that rivals that of a regular solar cell. Currently, anti-solar cells can make about 50 W at night: that’s one-fourth of a typical cell during the day.
