Solar Panels That Work at Night
Generating power does require a fuel source. The old methods of using stored energy in the form of coal or oil use energy which has been charging up for millions of years. Modern and renewable energies do no have this luxury of time and mostly generate power in real time. The down side of this is that the fuel source is not always available. The wind does not always blow or the sun sets over the horizon for the night.
Solar Array
In the case for energy produced by photovoltaic cells day light is needed and the more light then the more energy is produced. The efficiency of the cells allow more of this light to be converted and huge steps have been made to achieve higher conversion rates. By using different materials or construction process more electricity can be made but these cells can be often quite more expensive or no suitable for installation on our homes.
In Japan, the Kyoto Institute of Technology, has been following a slightly different approach in their experiments. Light or electromagnetic radiation can often come in forms that we cannot see. Our eyes are tuned to a narrow band which we call visible light and spreading out in each direction is light we cannot see without using specialized equipment to retune this to something we can see with our eyes. This is the approach the Japanese scientists have taken, by developing solar cells that can see a larger range of light more power could be produced
This is like listening to a radio station, we are tuned and can hear our favorite shows. Unfortunately down the dial a little bit is another show we would like to hear but we cant. If we had a radio that could listen to many radio shows at once then we would never miss all our favorites. The actual result would not be a pleasant experience but for photovoltaic energy production it would be a bonus.
The cells can capture visible light as well as infrared and ultraviolet radiation. In theory these cell can work in low light conditions and perhaps even at night. This would mean that the cells could generate electricity for a much longer period each day and help to reduce some of the problems associated with solar power.
Unfortunately this is still very much in development and the efficiency is extremely low when compared to currently available crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells. But they have shown that they can capture just more than visible sunlight.
Each and every little development taking place is showing that renewable energy is becoming more viable replacement energy that we will soon see as normal rather then alternative.
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