Scientists manage to develop panels that produce energy during the night

After all, if solar energy needs the sun to be produced, how can solar panels generate electricity in its absence? Well, engineers at Stanford University, in the United States, found a way to make this possible. Since during the night the air gets colder, and this difference in temperature — not the solar incidence — can be used to generate energy with the help of a photovoltaic cell. Understand!

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How do these new solar panels work?

In a simple way, the electrical energy from the sun's rays is generated from the irradiation of this phenomenon on a solar panel that is relatively cold. With this, the solar cells present in the panel, made of layers of a semiconductor material, usually silicon, produce a flow of electricity.

However, the solar panel developed at Stanford University has the presence of a device that unites a generator thermoelectric that has the ability to remove electricity from the temperature variation between the photovoltaic cell of the panel and the environment around you.

Furthermore, the energy generated by these panels during the night may not be much, but it is enough to charge a cell phone or an LED flashlight. As little as it seems, for those who do not have easy access to electricity, as the engineers point out in the study's summary, such panels can be of great help, being a renewable source of electricity off the regular grid, as is the case for residents of regions remote.

Energy does not need to be stored in batteries.

Another benefit of the panels developed at Stanford is that they don't need to store the energy produced in batteries. This is because such items have high production costs and a lot of bureaucracy for disposal, especially in places outside the traditional power grid.

In addition, the team responsible for the project concluded that the panel configuration will still undergo improvements, thus making it possible to generate more energy. Furthermore, there is no impediment or resistance to transforming the system into a product to be marketed.