It produces only a little power, but its innovative approach could support hardware that operates during lengthy periods of total darkness, such as deep-space satellites.
    • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
      44·
      3 days ago

      You’re getting downvoted for pointing out that this technology, at optimal efficiency on Earth, generates about 1/100,000 the power of a solar panel. “Not very useful” is an understatement (it’s currently fucking useless). Even worse: the title saying “at night” implies a terrestrial usage and misdirects from this technology’s only potential useful application in the future once and if it becomes much better – namely on deep-space missions.

      This research is interesting. I hope it yields something useful. Your comment is still 100% correct for the foreseeable future.

      Edit: I was conflating the optimal efficiency of 1 W/m2 and the actual efficiency of 1/100,000 the solar panel. Sorry for introducing that confusion.

      • cheesemoo@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        3 days ago

        That 1/100,000 comparison doesn’t seem right if these panels generate 1W per square meter as the parent poster said. It sounds like you’re saying regular solar panels generate 100kW per square meter but I’m pretty sure that’s orders of magnitude too high. Am I misinterpreting what you said?

        • XeroxCool@lemmy.worldEnglish
          7·
          3 days ago

          Agreed. It’s 1/100 with old panels at 1/300 with modern high performance panels, being up to 300w/m.

          Edit: solar radiation is only 1.3kw/m2

          • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            3 days ago

            Edit: solar radiation is only 1.3kw/m2

            Outside earths atmosphere. Only ~650 Watts/m^2 reach the surface of our planet.

            Edit: I posted regurgitating some simplified assumption from a text book or something I must have read in the past, the 650 W/m² is wrong.

    • db2@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      Clearly you don’t know how much longer sketchy hallways get in the dark. It’s at least a 20 fold increase.

    • FunkyCheese@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      Could be good enough for light in dark places

      But… yes

      Generally not enough. But maybe with more work they could become better

  • dddontshoot@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    3 days ago

    The system takes advantage of the heat difference between Earth’s surface and the night sky, with the ground radiating much of the heat it captured during the previous day.

    It’s not a reverse solar panel. It’s not a solar anything. It requires a difference in heat… So it generates electricity in the same situation that a sterling engine uses to generate motion. Could you put one on a diesel generator to turn the waste heat into more electricity?

    Does it have anything in common with those weird little solid state heat exchangers Peltier elements? Wait, are they actually, literally peltier elements?

    • yesman@lemmy.worldEnglish
      41·
      2 days ago

      It’s not a reverse solar panel. It’s not a solar anything. It requires a difference in heat…

      The solar part is because the Sun is responsible for the heat differential.

  • solrize@lemmy.mlEnglish
    7·
    3 days ago

    The thing about deep space is confusing. Where is it dark for long periods in deep space?