Solar power system that can operate 24 hours a day?

Climate change, such as global warming due to the increase in carbon dioxide emissions, is a problem. Among these, renewable energy such as solar power is attracting attention as an energy to replace fossil fuels. However, the downside is that solar power can only be operated while the sun is shining. However, it is said that a new solar power generation system that can continue power generation at night has been devised.

In general, solar cells generate electricity by exposure to light. At night, the infinite light source of the sun disappears and power cannot be generated, so there is a fatal disadvantage that the efficiency is worse than other systems that rotate the turbine and continuously generate electricity with only fuel.

The UC Davis research team argues that a power generation system using anti-solar cells can build a solar power generation system that continues to operate 24 hours a day. Anti-solar cell is an application of a phenomenon called radiative cooling in which a high-temperature object radiates electromagnetic waves around it to lower the temperature. Radiation cooling power generation is being studied for applications such as converting excess heat from engines and servers into electric power, and recently, it is attracting attention as a system capable of generating power at low cost.

The heat dissipating cell devised by the research team generates power by conventional solar power generation during the day, but radiates infrared rays at night by radiative cooling to generate power. In theory, it can continue to develop 24 hours a day. According to the research team’s calculations, it is estimated that building this cell with modern technology can produce 2 to 8 watts of power per 1 m ² at night. Usually that solar panels Given the fact that the development 200W per 1m ² during the day, nighttime power generation capacity is considerably small, but increasing the total daily power generation is 12% more than the previous generation system using solar cells.

The research team emphasized that the new device using this cell is the opposite of the solar cell in the direction of current and voltage flow, but it emits infrared rays to generate power at night. Related information can be found here .