Infrared Spectrum Solar Panels

Visible light accounts for under half of the solar energy that reaches earth s surface.

Infrared spectrum solar panels.

New technology could capture solar energy now wasted existing silicon solar panels harvest light from the visible part of the spectrum and their efficiency is improving but much of the sun s energy that reaches earth comes in the form of infrared energy. As a result the best commercial panels only convert about 20 percent of solar energy to electricity. Sunlight energy that reaches the ground is around 4 ultraviolet 43 visible light and 53 infrared. Nearly all of the rest comes from infrared radiation.

Why uv panels are a con job. Most of the solar energy falling on earth has wavelengths of wavelengths of 250nm to 2500nm. At night if a panel is pointed toward earth then it could capture the earth s invisible infrared light. Brian wang november 2 2019.

Specifically this layered cell is much better at collecting those longer wavelengths of light into the. Solar panels mostly convert visible light into electrical energy and they also can make use of almost half the infrared energy. Most of the energy is in the visible part of the spectrum. The spectrum of the sun s solar radiation is close to that of a black body with a temperature of about 5 800 k.

A silicon cell cuts off at 1100 nm which means that it won t absorb any energy with wavelengths larger than this. Solar panels absorb the sun s heat and generate energy. The sun emits em radiation across most of the electromagnetic spectrum although the sun produces gamma rays as a result of the nuclear fusion process internal absorption and thermalization convert these super high energy photons to lower energy photons before they reach the sun s. Infrared solar cells will boost solar power by up to 25 and eventually double.

A research team led by hans ågren professor in theoretical chemistry at kth royal institute of technology has developed a film that can be applied on top of ordinary solar cells which would enable them to use infrared light in energy conversion and increase efficiency by 10 percent or more. They spend all day baking in the sun but that doesn t mean solar panels capture all the light that hits them. Solar cell efficiencies could increase by 30 percent or more with new hybrid materials that make use of the infrared portion of the solar spectrum researchers say. But solar panels only use a small portion of ultraviolet.

Silicon solar panels absorb all ultraviolet light visible light and near infrared light incident on them from the sun. Wouldn t it be grand if we could find a way to harvest this lost energy.