Scientists Develop Affordable Solar Panels That Work In The Dark

[MarineUS]

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1lQdDU/www.greenwala.com/channels/green-technology/blog/13103-Scientists-Develop-Affordable-Solar-Panels-That-Work-In-The-Dark

Cool stuff!

[F22RaptorDude]

I heard about they were trying this a few years ago, looking for materials that could produce almost 100% energy from the sun. Looks like its finally happening 

[MachFly]

Solar panels that work in the dark?  The whole point of a solar panel is to capture light energy coming from the sun. The way I see it it's either not going to work or it's not a solar panel.

[Tac]

stars are suns too ya know. Plus the moon most of the time reflects sunlight onto the earth (thats why you can see it silly!).

[MachFly]

stars are suns too ya know. Plus the moon most of the time reflects sunlight onto the earth (thats why you can see it silly!).

ok....

So if I shine a flashlight at a solar panel it will work good? The amount of light other starts give off and the moon is a bit less than the sun, that is why it's dark at night, right?
I'm not saying that they would not work at all, but the energy would be insignificant.

[skorpion]

ok....

So if I shine a flashlight at a solar panel it will work good? The amount of light other starts give off and the moon is a bit less than the sun, that is why it's dark at night, right?
I'm not saying that they would not work at all, but the energy would be insignificant.

were still getting energy arent we?

[Motherland]

ok....

So if I shine a flashlight at a solar panel it will work good? The amount of light other starts give off and the moon is a bit less than the sun, that is why it's dark at night, right?
I'm not saying that they would not work at all, but the energy would be insignificant.

Well if it didn't do something revolutionary like, say, make a pretty decent out of energy out of a pretty insignificant source, then it probably wouldn't warrant a news story.

[MachFly]

were still getting energy arent we?

I think you'd get more energy from a running hamster.

Well if it didn't do something revolutionary like, say, make a pretty decent out of energy out of a pretty insignificant source, then it probably wouldn't warrant a news story.

Looking at what kind of stuff the news say, I would not be surprised. If this would be something really significant than it would be on the headlines of almost all news companies.

[MarineUS]

you actually have to look at what they are using. The ones for this absorb MUCH more due to the metals etc. used and this means you can get the same amount of power as a modern panel from the sun's light energy reflected from  the sun.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

ok....

So if I shine a flashlight at a solar panel it will work good? The amount of light other starts give off and the moon is a bit less than the sun, that is why it's dark at night, right?
I'm not saying that they would not work at all, but the energy would be insignificant.

The efficiency is partly based on capturing wavelengths of light that are invisible to human eye. It may look dark to you but there's still lots of IR etc. energy flowing.

[bj229r]

Well, hopefully solar will someday progress to being useful for something besides agrarian societies. A HUGE area of panels provide not nearly enough wattage to do anything like run industrial equipment....would be nice if the idjits who run our country and pontificate about 'green' jobs had a clue of that

[smoe]

The patent rights will most likely be bought out by a large corp. and we won't see it for another 20 years.

[BaDkaRmA158Th]

The patent rights will most likely be bought out by a large corp. and we won't see it for another 20 years.

DING! +1

[Tac]

ok....

So if I shine a flashlight at a solar panel it will work good?

It will work but not 'good' since the light from a flashlight is weak.

The amount of light other starts give off and the moon is a bit less than the sun, that is why it's dark at night, right?
I'm not saying that they would not work at all, but the energy would be insignificant.

Its dark at night because you're on a location on earth opposite to the closest sun. The light from a star still carries a lot of energy in it, its just that starlight is, in layman's terms, only a few rays of light from each distant star (compared to billions and billions of rays of light that = direct sunlight from our sun).

Solar cells work by catching high energy photons and taking/converting it into electrons so a distant sun's ray of light will still allow it to generate some power. The current solar tech has a ratio of 1 photon to 1 electron or something like that.. the new tech can perhaps make 4 to 5 electrons per photon..which is why it would work almost like an 'old tech' solar cell at night. 

[Seraphim]

I'm sorry, but no. I work for a company that has the cornerstone for the solar market. We've invented the dual & triple junction cell, sent them to Mars, even to an asteroid. You can NOT convert 100% of light to energy, simple matter of physics. Ours are are up to 40%, which is still a world wide record. Anyone who says that they've done the same have bought their wafers from us (especially the Germans). That whole article says 'It would be nice if...." and not much more. Gallium Arsenide has been our staple for over ten years, and believe me, even though there are many idiots at my company, there are a few who are developing better cells day by day.

Triple junctions work on the principle of multiple wavelengths, from UV down to IR. Originally, our gallium cells were called single junction, because they only converted one part of the spectrum into energy. They get better as time goes on, and our quads should be showing up soon.