Stanford researchers found that modified solar panels that run at night generate enough power to charge a phone or run an LED flashlight, bypassing the need to store power in batteries in off-grid locations.
Solar electricity is generated when the sun radiates energy onto a relatively cold solar panel. This panel consists of so-called solar cells, consisting of layers of semiconductor material, usually silicon. When light falls on this material, it generates a stream of electricity.
However, at night, solar panels radiate heat into outer space, which is about 3 kelvins (-270.15°C), because the heat spreads in the direction of colder temperatures.
This makes the solar panel cooler than the night air, and this temperature difference can be used to generate electricity.
To do this, Shanghai Fan from Stanford University in California and his colleagues modified a standard solar cell by adding a thermoelectric generator. This device generates currents due to temperature differences, the journal Applied Physics Letters reported.
In this way, bioenergy could still discover a new genetic pathway that would be very useful for better processing of biofuels, making it not only cheaper, but also environmentally friendly.