New Kind of 'Solar' Cell Shows We Can Generate Electricity Even at Night - ScienceAlert
A team of engineers in Australia has now demonstrated the theory in action, using the kind of technology commonly found in night-vision goggles to generate power.So far, the prototype only generates a small amount of power, and is probably unlikely to become a competitive source of renewable power on its own – but coupled with existing photovoltaics technology, it could harness the small amount of energy provided by solar cells cooling after a long, hot day's work."Photovoltaics, the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity, is an artificial process that humans have developed in order to convert the solar energy into power," says Phoebe Pearce, a physicist from the University of New South Wales.By setting atoms in any material jiggling with heat, you're forcing their electrons to generate low-energy ripples of electromagnetic radiation in the form of infrared light."But the theory says it is possible for this technology to ultimately produce about 1/10th of the power of a solar cell.".