Today, for the very first time, I learned about Moonlight panels. We all know that Solar panels work only when enough light is available to convert into energy. It is also said that excess heat will reduce the efficiency of solar panels. During the morning time when the sun is low and the heat is low, solar panels produce more energy than what is produced in the afternoon and evening because the panels will already be heated up, reducing their efficiency.
Coming back to the topic, we are now in the innovation era where some innovation or the other happens in the energy sector. It appears that Stanford University researchers have developed new solar panels that can make use of the moonlight to generate electricity. This also means that these solar panels can be called as low-light solar panels. I'm thinking that a combination of both sunlight and moonlight panels will be the best one to generate electricity throughout the day and night. Of course, there is a challenge where if the sky is fully covered with clouds, the efficiency will be greatly affected.
During the nighttime, Earth radiates infrared energy into space, and this also creates a temperature difference in the surroundings. What if this temperature difference can be used to produce electricity? This will be an interesting thing to do. Though this technology is still in the preliminary stages, innovations like these are very important because the future is fully on renewable sources of energy.
One thing that I can say for sure is that we cannot compare this moonlight panel with that of the sunlight panels. The efficiency of moonlight panels will be low unless they come up with some powerful ways to increase the efficiency. But for a start, this is a great thing and we have to welcome such innovations. Another important thing to note here is the cost of making those panels. They say that the regular solar panels can be made as cheaply as making glass, but they are not yet available that cheaply in the market. If we can create such low-cost panels and hybrid panels that work both in the daytime as well as the night time, it will be very good.
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