Posted on 04/19/2022 7:49:11 AM PDT by Red Badger
"The coldness of outer space is also an extremely important renewable energy resource," a researcher says.
Solar panels sit under a night sky. Researchers have designed solar panels that can generate electricity at night.
It likely goes without saying, but of all the energy solar panels generated last year, none of it was produced at night. New research is showing that doesn't have to be the case.
Researchers at Stanford modified commercially available solar panels to generate a small amount of electricity at night by exploiting a process known as radiative cooling, which relies on, no lie, the frigid vacuum of space. The research was published in early April in Applied Letters in Physics.
"We tend to think of the sun as the important renewable energy resource," said Shanhui Fan, the lead researcher on the project. "The coldness of outer space is also an extremely important renewable energy resource."
While the modified panels generate a tiny amount of energy compared with what a modern solar panel does during the day, that energy could still be useful, especially at night when energy demand is much lower, the researchers said.
VIDEO AT LINK.............
Now playing: Lucy's gigantic solar panels unfurl during testing 0:40
Technically speaking, the modified solar panels don't generate solar electricity at night. Instead of exploiting sunlight (or starlight or moonlight, which still doesn't work), the researchers added technology that exploits radiative cooling.
When an object is facing the sky at night, it radiates heat out to outer space, which means that an object can become cooler than the air temperature around it. This effect could have obvious applications in cooling buildings, but the difference in temperature can also be used to generate electricity.
Fan, a professor of electrical engineering, and his fellow researchers added technology to a commercial solar panel that could do just that and were able to generate a small amount of electricity at night.
The modified panel generated 50 milliwatts per square meter at night. While that's much more than previous iterations of this technology, it's well below what a commercial solar panel can produce during the day. One back-of-the-envelope calculation returns close to 200 watts per square meter for one commercial solar panel. One watt is equal to one thousand milliwatts.
"So, this is significantly lower," Fan said. "But it may potentially be useful for some of the low power density applications." That might include nighttime lighting, charging devices, and keeping sensors and monitoring equipment online, Fan said.
Fan says that the modifications were made to commercial solar panels, which means the technology could be widely deployed. He also said that by improving the design, more electricity could be generated.
There are still a lot of questions to be answered before any commercial application can be rolled out, Geoff Smith, emeritus professor in applied physics at The University of Technology Sydney, wrote in an email response to questions. Smith, who was aware of the research but not involved, has doubts that it ever will be an economically viable source of energy.
"Adding complexity and avenues for degradation to renewable energy systems despite being scientifically interesting rarely makes it in practice," he wrote.
The research proves that you can generate electricity in this way and wasn't meant to prove anything about future practical applications, Fan said.
Still, Smith agrees that greater attention should be paid to outer space as a renewable energy source. In his view, cooling and other modes of electricity generation are more promising, but that the night sky is a valuable avenue for shifting energy use.
Even if it's not yet producing a lot of electricity, radiative cooling is pretty much ubiquitous.
"Every time you're outside, you're actually doing it," Fan said.
So in laymans terms, they generate what an obese hamster can generate running slowly on a wheel.
One thing I expected the article to mention but didn't, is that solar panels are more effective in cold weather. My 32 panels, 320W each technically are rated for 10.2kW together. I can get a hair over that when it's below 40 degrees but still sunny (which happens often at noon in the winter during what us Alabamians call a "really cold" day).
But as far as the new technology pulling a teeny bit of power from the cooldown phase at night .... I think that money would be better spent on battery power to hold onto what solar was captured during the day.
“It likely goes without saying, but of all the energy solar panels generated last year could.....have been produced in seconds by a reactor at a fraction of the cost.
I didn’t go through and look at all the article, but I’d guess we’d get around 1 watt per acre of cells...if they are lucky.
That’ll work out to be around $1m or so per kilowatt hour.
Just guesses on the numbers, of course, but I’ll bet I’m not far off.
Nailed it. Maybe enough to charge your cell phone (yours but not others).
This is our first year with solar that came with the house we bought. I was surprised to find that we seem to have generated more electricity in April than in August.
Sounds like a lot of big words and vague theories to keep the grant money coming in to me.
Next thing they’re gonna tell us is you can use water to power an internal combination engine.......oh that’s right, they already tried to pull that one.
Hazzah! We’re saved.
we can do gazillions of things that aren’t efficient
Or we could build thorium reactors and do away with all this nonsense altogether.
Any idea how old your solar panels are?
Reason I ask is the lunatic lib across the street from me has already had to start replacing his and his system is no more than 10 y/o.
Just a friendly mention for something to consider
Where’s the fun in that?.................
To get a solar panel to produce at night time, just stand out there and shine your flashlight on them. duhScience!
So, using this statement: One back-of-the-envelope calculation returns close to 200 watts per square meter for one commercial solar panel. One watt is equal to one thousand milliwatts. In other words, 200,000 milliwatts per square meter IN THE DAYLIGHT.
Assuming 50 milliwatts per square meter AT NIGHT (as stated in the article), it would take 4000 SQUARE METERS of panels to generate the equivalent 200 watts from 1 panel at 1 square meter IN THE DAYLIGHT. 4000 square meters is roughly 43,000 square feet or roughly ONE ACRE of solar panels is needed AT NIGHT to generate 200 watts. This is STUPID. Lab experiment only.
Another option is the Potato Battery which produces 1.2 milliwatts all by itself. So, 42 potatoes generate 50 milliwatts. If we had 167,000 potatoes, we could generate 200 watts. Science is fun
If in an area with clear skies.
Scientifically interesting, realistically garbage.
Reason I mentioned that is the lib across the street bought an instruction manual around 10 years ago that claimed you could convert an ICE engine to water IN YOUR GARAGE IN A WEEKEND...WHAT!?
No steam involved just a straight conversion.
I flipped through the 1st chapter and even if I took his car to the aviation facility I worked at and used all the resources available it would still be impossible.
“To get a solar panel to produce at night time, just stand out there and shine your flashlight on them. duhScience!”
Better yet, start your gas-powered car and put the lights on bright. That should do the trick...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.