Incredible! This kind of solar panel can generate electricity at night and can be used day and night, how to do it?

Solar photovoltaic power generation equipment needs sunlight to generate electricity, because the energy used by it comes from sunlight, but there will be no sunlight at night, so this makes the power generation capacity of solar energy and photovoltaic power generation equipment in The time distribution is extremely uneven, but the power consumption at night is also quite large, which is also a major obstacle to limiting solar photovoltaic power generation.

However, according to a news reported by Chinanews on April 10, a paper was published in the fortnightly issue of the American "Applied Physics Letters" published on April 5. Scientists and engineers from Stanford University have designed a method that can Solar panels that generate electricity at night are expected to solve the problem that solar photovoltaic power generation equipment cannot generate electricity at night.

This solar panel looks nothing special, because its material is not special at all, but an insulating material called a "thermoelectric module" (TEG and a a unique material that can capture wavelengths of heat), and an embedded thermoelectric generator (TEG) that operates at night and "harvesses electricity from the temperature difference between the photovoltaic cells and the surrounding environment."

The leader of this invention is Fan Shanhui, an electrical engineer at Stanford University. He explained that the newly invented solar photovoltaic cell has two materials. The ordinary photovoltaic material can receive sunlight to generate electricity today, and the insulating material of the thermoelectric module can absorb electricity at night. The heat flow radiated from the photovoltaic cell, which will allow it to generate an electric current. Therefore, this technical principle is not difficult to understand. Photovoltaic power generation equipment can absorb sunlight during the day and store light energy and heat, and then radiate heat outward through the radiator at night. A large part of this energy can be captured by thermoelectric modules. .

Experts believe that this kind of power generation equipment is very suitable for installation in areas with large temperature difference between day and night, such as northwest China and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, where there is enough direct sunlight during the day, and the air temperature is very low at night, so the geographical environment is very favorable for this kind of power generation equipment be effective. my country is the world's largest producer of solar panels and the largest country in solar power generation, so this technology may be of great significance to the development of my country's solar energy industry.

After the publication of the paper, the technology has been regarded as a breakthrough in the field of solar photovoltaic power generation, but at present this power generation equipment still produces very little power at night, and the power generated at night is only 50mW (milliwatts) per square meter, driving A 100-watt light bulb requires several tens of square meters of solar panels, so it is still difficult to use it effectively, while standard solar panels are about ideal daytime power generation, with a power of about 1000W per square meter (Watts). ), the power generation during the day and night cannot be compared at all, and the heat stored by photovoltaic power generation cools faster at night, and the power generated by this technology will decay very quickly until there is no power, so this invention is amazing. It is still far from practical application.

However, the inventor believes that the current design is just an attempt, there is a lot of room for improvement, and its power generation efficiency at night will also be greatly improved in the future.