EurekAlert September 12, 2019
A team of researchers in the US (UCLA, Stanford University) built a thermoelectric generator that sidesteps the limitations of solar power by taking advantage of radiative cooling, in which a sky-facing surface passes its heat to the atmosphere as thermal radiation, losing some heat to space and reaching a cooler temperature than the surrounding air harnessing temperature differences to generate electricity. The device consists of a polystyrene enclosure covered in aluminized mylar to minimize thermal radiation and protected by an infrared-transparent wind cover. In tests the device generated 25 milliwatts of energy per square meter in six hours. The amount of electricity generated per unit area remains relatively small, limiting its widespread applications for now, but the researchers predict it can be made twenty times more powerful with improved engineering and operation in a hotter, drier climate. As the device is made of aluminum disk coated in paint and off the shelf items it can be scaled for practical use…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Athermoelectric generator harnesses temperature differences to produce renewable electricity without active heat input. Here it is generating light. Credit: Aaswath Raman