Researchers from the University of New South Wales hav revealed a major breakthrough in renewable energy technology by using Earth’s radiant infrare

Australian researchers harvest “night-time solar” to provide power in the dark

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2022-05-18 05:30:03

Researchers from the University of New South Wales hav revealed a major breakthrough in renewable energy technology by using Earth’s radiant infrared heat to generate electricity in the dark.

A team from the UNSW School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering published the results of their research into radiant infrared heat, describing a major breakthrough in producing electricity from so-called “night-time solar power” – heat radiated as infrared light.

The researchers used a semiconductor device known as a thermoradiative diode – which is composed of materials found in night-vision goggles – to generate power from the emission of infrared light.

And though the amount of power generated at this early stage of the research is very small – around 100,000 times less than that supplied by a solar panel – the UNSW researchers nevertheless believe that their results can be improved.

The research, published this week in the journal ACS Photonics, serves as a vital confirmation of what had previously been a theoretical process. And it is the first step towards developing specialised and more efficient devices that the UNSW researchers believe could one day capture infrared energy at a much larger scale.

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