紅外線能發電，晚上也能發電

太陽能雖然強悍，每天總是掛晴天娃娃來祈禱一下老天賞光。愛達荷國家實驗室的科學家對於這種看天吃飯的能源不太滿意，於是開發了一種可以從「紅外線」轉換能量的奈米天線陣列，這下就算是下雨天、半夜也可以收集能源了！不只如此，這樣做出來的晶片遠比一般的太陽能板便宜許多，簡直就是人類的未來希望了─那為什麼還沒大賣呢？這裡有一個尷尬的問題，由於這項技術在收集紅外線能量時，頻率是一億億Hz，遠遠超過一般交流電的50~60Hz，所以他們還在努力降頻中...嗯，看來我們還要多等幾年才能省電費了。
原始網站 Idaho National Laboratory https://inlportal.inl.gov/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=1269&mode=2&featurestory=DA_101047

Infrared solar panels even work at night, but can't output energy

by Ryan Block, posted Feb 2nd 2008 at 6:31PM
Solar's had a pretty rough time breaking the ~40% efficiency level over the years, but Idaho National Laboratory researchers have apparently developed a nano-antenna array capable of collecting power not from photonic energy as is done today, but from infrared energy that could be harvested in any weather (or even at night). The cell production process is even supposed to be ridiculously cheap compared to making standard silicon photovoltaic cells, but, as always, there's a rub. The grid collects its oscillating IR energy at ten thousand billion times per second, which is proving to be a challenge to the nerds behind the tech, who are working on a way to convert that to the 50-60Hz power that the world uses. So yeah, it might be a few more years before this one pans out (if it does pan out).

[Via EcoGeek]