This is interesting...
eandt.theiet.org
"Solar" Panels pointing at the cold dark sky at night to generate electricity. Theory is to capture heat energy escaping to space and turn it into electricity. My first thought was that if its converting heat, you'd want to point them at a hot object- which the night sky is not. But that's not what they say is happening. Using the imbalance in the direction of the radiation between two objects allows the harnessing of the energy. So you want to point them at things that don't radiate any energy back to you i.e. the night sky. The energy source is the heat built up in the Earth.
If it holds up, these would produce about 25% of the output of a traditional solar panel. If incorporated into a solar panel using the same footprint, that would be an interesting way of solving the time of production vs. time of use problems with solar, especially if integrated with other applications that need cooling.
Or maybe this is the equivalent of a quack perpetual motion machine...
‘Anti-solar panel’ concept generates power in the dark
A researcher at the University of California, Davis, is developing prototype anti-solar panels, which he hopes will generate power from wasted thermal energy.
eandt.theiet.org
"Solar" Panels pointing at the cold dark sky at night to generate electricity. Theory is to capture heat energy escaping to space and turn it into electricity. My first thought was that if its converting heat, you'd want to point them at a hot object- which the night sky is not. But that's not what they say is happening. Using the imbalance in the direction of the radiation between two objects allows the harnessing of the energy. So you want to point them at things that don't radiate any energy back to you i.e. the night sky. The energy source is the heat built up in the Earth.
If it holds up, these would produce about 25% of the output of a traditional solar panel. If incorporated into a solar panel using the same footprint, that would be an interesting way of solving the time of production vs. time of use problems with solar, especially if integrated with other applications that need cooling.
Or maybe this is the equivalent of a quack perpetual motion machine...
