Night Solar Panels specially designed panels may help solving the current problems with solar energy by generating power during night. The Solar panels were invented in 2020, when scientists at the University of California Davis, US, hit the news.
Created by Professor Jeremy Munday and coined ‘anti-solar cells’, the solution allows us to harvest electricity from the night sky. Research conducted this year now confirms these nighttime solar panels produce enough energy to charge a mobile phone.
The original study was conducted at Stanford University where a research team added a thermoelectric generator – a device that produces currents from temperature differences – to one of these particular solar panels.
They work by using the heat or infrared light radiated from the surface of the solar panel into space on clear nights.
“The solar panel turned out to be a very efficient thermal radiator,” says lead scientist Shanhui Fan. “So, at night, the solar panel can actually reach a temperature that’s below the ambient air temperature, and that’s a rather unusual opportunity for power harvesting.”
Traditionally solar panels, or photovoltaic cells, have suffered from the effects of changeable seasons and the fact that they don’t work at night. From cloudy weather to dwindling day length, it’s not just the dusk that stops them from providing a viable renewable energy source for people in many parts of the world.