The Earth is constantly releasing hundreds of millions of gigawatts of infraredradiation (heat) into space. Heat from its core, heat from animals, heat from humans grilling hot dogs, latent heat from the Sun, it all adds up. Imagine if even a tiny bit of that radiation could be somehow converted into a renewable power source. That’s the question that a team of Harvard physicists recently posed to themselves, and in the process, they developed a device that could harvest infrared energy and convert it to DC power.
This idea might seem crazy, but with advances in nanotechnology, graphene and smaller electronics, the Harvard team now believes it’s possible to harness infrared power. The proposed device to do this is similar to a standard solar panel, but the team’s panels are not designed to capture sunlight, but to release infrared light, generating power. This panel would have two plates: one close to the ground that sucks up infrared energy from the Earth, and another cooler one on top that emits it. Because of the heat difference between the two plates, you can use them to do work, like generating electricity.
Another device proposed by the team also uses temperature differences to generate power, but in a different way and on a much smaller scale. The idea is to have an electrical circuit with components that have a valve, or diode, that directs electrical current in one direction. A tiny antenna would act as a resistor that would emit infrared radiation from the Earth. The antenna’s temperature would be cooler than the diode, creating power in much the same way as the team’s first proposed device.
An inherent problem with these theories, though, is that the power generated wouldn’t be enough to provide a lot of electricity: only a few watts per square meter each day. However, something like this could be used with solar power plants by generating power at night when solar panels shut down. Usually, a battery or gas-powered generator does this, but with infrared being renewable, it makes it the better option.
Via Harvard
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