Stanford’s Night Working Solar Panels

Home / News / Stanford’s Night Working Solar Panels

Stanford’s Night Working Solar Panels

Home / News / Stanford’s Night Working Solar Panels

Stanford has developed solar panels that work at night! 

We are commonly told that solar panel energy generation does not happen at night. This all changes with Stanford’s spectacular new research and development in night energy generation. Stanford engineers have successfully produced a small amount of electricity at night. They have done this by modifying solar panels and using a process called radiative cooling. While this is only a small amount of electricity generated, it is still beneficial as the demand for energy is lower at night. These solar panels are not what generates electricity at night, but the technology that is added by research to exploit radiative cooling.

NIGHT WORKING SOLAR PANELS

“The coldness of outer space is also an extremely important renewable energy source,” lead project researcher Shanhui Fan says.

This research is happening at a time when solar jobs and solar residential installations are on the rise. Why solar? The price of solar energy has been declining for years and recently, it has become substantially more affordable. Many US states provide a variety of solar incentives and programs to go solar. In addition, due to recent shocks such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, resulting in global supply uncertainty, investing in the research of energy alternatives is of crucial importance!  