A new discovery opens the door for nighttime solar energy

The new thermoradiative diode generates electricity by emitting infrared light into a colder environment.Photo: Pixabay/JillWellingtonThe earth absorbs heat from the sun’s rays every day, but at night this solar heat radiates back into space as infrared light. By capturing some of it at night, we could have a powerful source of energy when the sun doesn’t shine.This is exactly what Australian scientists have done by creating a groundbreaking new method for producing electricity from dissipating infrared light. Their invention lies in a semiconductor device called a thermoradiative diode, which is composed of materials used in night-vision goggles.“Using thermal imaging cameras you can see how much radiation there is at night, but just in the infrared rather than the visible wavelengths. What we have done is make a device that can generate electrical power from the emission of…

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