Solar Cells Still Work After Sun Sets
Apr 15, 2022
Harvesting energy from temperature differences between photovoltaic cells, the surrounding air can generate a viable source of renewable electricity at night.
About 750 million people in the world do not have access to electricity at night. Solar cells provide electricity during the day, but saving energy for later use requires a lot of battery storage.
Researchers at Stanford University have constructed a photovoltaic cell that can harvest energy from the environment during the day and night, avoiding the need for batteries entirely. The device harnesses the heat that leaks from Earth back into space—energy on the same order of magnitude as incoming solar radiation.
At night, the solar cells radiate and dissipate heat into the sky, reaching temperatures a few degrees cooler than the ambient air. The device under development uses thermoelectric modules to generate voltage and current from the temperature gradient between the battery and the air. This process depends on the thermal design of the system, including the hot and cold sides.
The team demonstrated their device's power generation in its device during the day and night, when it ran in reverse and provided additional power to conventional solar cells.
Electric lighting at night requires several watts of electricity. Current devices generate 50 milliwatts per square meter, which means lighting requires about 20 square meters of photovoltaic area.
In the future, these devices will be optimized, and engineering improvements to the solar cells themselves are being explored to improve radiative cooling performance without compromising their solar energy harvesting capabilities.
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