Stanford Engineers Have Gotten Solar Panels to Generate Electricity at Night
Assaworrarit has been successful so far. He and his colleagues have created a device that helps regular solar panels generate electricity using the fluctuating temperature of ambient air. As it turns out, solar panels can kind of work in reverse; solar panels emit infrared radiation even in the absence of light. This takes the form of protons carrying heat away from the solar panel via wavelengths invisible to the human eye. On a clear day (when there aren’t any clouds in the sky to reflect infrared light back toward Earth) this heat transfer creates a temperature difference of a few degrees, which is the secret sauce to Assaworrarit’s device.
The device, called a thermoelectric generator, catches the heat that flows between the warm air and the solar panel and turns it into energy. Assaworrarit’s team is currently able to obtain about 50 milliwatts per square meter of solar panel. Though this is a small fraction of the amount of electricity a solar panel can generate during the day (most are capable of about 150 watts per square meter), Assaworrarit says the right location and a few tweaks to the technology may allow the device to pick up “about one or two watts per square meter,” which is far more than solar panels were previously able to generate at night.
Assaworrarit’s team isn’t the first to use a thermoelectric generator to capture heat from the night, but their approach looks promising when it comes to using solar panels that already exist for daytime use. By using an aluminum plate to reduce the amount of heat that could escape from the edges of their solar panels, the team was able to multiply their technology’s generated energy nearly ten times.
Night-effective solar panels carry a significant amount of potential. Scientists who use solar-powered equipment, like meteorologists and wildlife researchers, could benefit from more reliable power sources and lighter backup battery loads. Those who rely on solar power and other off-grid solutions for daily life—i.e. around one billion people globally—could also benefit from panels capable of providing a more consistent stream of electricity.
Continue reading
OpenAI’s ‘DALL-E’ Generates Images From Text Descriptions
All you need to do is give DALL-E some instructions, and it can draw an image for you. Sometimes the renderings are little better than fingerpainting, but other times they're startlingly accurate portrayals.
What to Expect From Intel’s 11th Generation Rocket Lake
There's a lot of leaks concerning Rocket Lake these days. Here's what we expect from Intel's next-generation desktop CPU.
Epic’s New MetaHuman Creator Generates Digital Characters that Avoid the Uncanny Valley
The company's new MetaHuman engine promises to deliver photorealistic digital characters in a snap, and you can check out a demo right now.
Intel Unleashes 3rd Generation Xeon CPUs Based on Ice Lake SP
Intel's 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable chips are out and offer real performance uplifts compared with previous Cascade Lake parts, but they aren't enough to win Intel overall performance leadership in the segment.