科學家發(fā)明了“反太陽能電池板”，以捕捉離開地球的能量

科學家發(fā)明了“反太陽能電池板”，以捕捉離開地球的能量

Solar power technology shows promise in helping humanity wean itself off of power sources that are far more damaging to the planet. It’s already used for a variety of applications, from powering residential homes to filling batteries on the International Space Station, but solar panels have one pretty huge limitation: they can’t generate power in the dark…or can they?

太陽能技術在幫助人類擺脫對地球危害更大的能源方面顯示出了希望。它已經被用于各種各樣的應用，從為住宅供電到為國際空間站的電池充電，但是太陽能電池板有一個相當大的限制：它們不能在黑暗中發(fā)電……或者它們能嗎?

In a new paper published in the journal ACS Photonics, researchers from the University of California, Davis, explain how they built what they are calling an “anti-solar panel.” As the name implies, this new type of “solar” technology works in the opposite way as a traditional solar panel.

在《ACS光子學》雜志上發(fā)表的一篇新論文中，來自加州大學戴維斯分校的研究人員解釋了他們是如何建造他們所謂的“反太陽能電池板”的。顧名思義，這種新型的“太陽能”技術與傳統(tǒng)太陽能電池板的工作方式相反。

Traditional solar panels work by capturing sunlight and converting it into energy that can be used for a variety of purposes. But how could such a thing work in reverse? It’s actually fairly straightforward: Just as with a regular solar panel that is capturing the transfer of energy from the Sun to the Earth, this anti-solar panel captures energy traveling from the Earth out into space.

傳統(tǒng)太陽能電池板的工作原理是捕捉陽光并將其轉化為可用于多種用途的能量。但這樣的事情怎么可能反過來發(fā)生呢?它實際上相當簡單:就像普通的太陽能電池板捕捉從太陽到地球的能量轉移一樣，這種反太陽能電池板捕捉從地球到太空的能量。

When a side of the Earth falls into darkness, it almost always gets colder. That heat, which is just another form of energy, is radiated off of the Earth’s surface and, in most cases, lost. This new type of panel actively captures that heat as it’s trying to escape into space and uses it to generate usable energy.

當地球的一面陷入黑暗時，它總是變得更冷。熱其實也是能量的另一種形式，它從地球表面輻射出去，在大多數情況下，會損失掉。這種新型的太陽能電池板在熱量試圖逃逸到太空時，會主動捕獲熱量，并利用它來生成可用的能量。