One of the current problems we face with solar panels is that they don’t generate electricity if the bright sun isn’t shining directly at them. This problem becomes evident when it’s night time. During the night, solar panels are simply in a standstill, and buildings have to rely on the electricity the panels have produced and stored during the day. 

So, how can we start producing clean energy at night? To everyone’s surprise, researchers from the University of California believe solar panels could be modified to solve this nighttime problem.

The researcher explained that if they wish to create panels that work during the night, they have to create one that functions in the opposite way a solar panel does. During the day, the solar panels are cold compared to the sun, so they are able to absorb the sun’s light and turn its heat radiation into energy. 

The prototype ‘night-panels’ inverts this whole process. During the night, our Earth is warmer than the cold empty space and it radiates some of its energy towards space. The night panels would then capture these small heatwaves radiated by our Earth and generate up to 25% of the electricity a normal solar panel creates.

Instead of using photovoltaic cells like solar panels do, these new panels use ‘thermoadaptive’ cells to generate electricity. Even if they captured less energy, having thermoradiative panels means that we could capture energy 24 hours a day. This new model is still in the prototype phase, but if successful we could start seeing these ‘anti-panels’ reusing our planet’s night heat for electricity.