It may seem a bit contradictory to talk about a solar panel that works at night, especially since there is no sunlight during this period… but that is exactly what an American startup is going to do, or rather, has already done and is going to launch: a night solar panel. The race for a means of generating clean and renewable energy is so advanced that we are already at the stage of turning night into day. Let’s see what the future holds for us.
Solar panel that works at night?
It’s no secret that the state of California, in the United States, is making progress in the area of renewable energy, but it’s impressive that they’re challenging reality. The Californian startup, Reflect Orbital, has developed and is about to launch a solar panel that works even without the sun, right after it sets. Check out what’s behind this innovation:
The idea here is to use satellites equipped with highly reflective mirrors positioned in space. These mirrors are made of Mylar, an ultra-light and highly reflective material. This means that it will be possible to reflect sunlight directly onto solar panels on Earth at night, which will be the first time in history that a solar panel will be artificially lit at night. The person who can best explain this idea is Ben Nowack himself, CEO of the startup:
“I had an interesting way to solve the real issue with solar power. It’s this unstoppable force. Everybody’s installing so many solar panels everywhere. It’s really a great candidate to power humanity. But sunlight turns off. It’s called nighttime. If you solve that fundamental problem, you fix solar everywhere”
Why is the night solar panel so innovative?
Well, we always knew that the biggest challenge of solar energy was its operation, since we only have the sun for part of the day – no sun, no energy. With the night solar panel, it will be possible to generate energy even during the dark (it’s time to say goodbye to regular solar energy once again, as we did in this other example). Imagine how big the impact of this will be on global energy generation… We will certainly reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and expensive battery storage.
In addition, the startup has been promising a new feature when it comes to acquiring this energy: it seems that you will be able to “reserve sunlight” in advance through their app. This new feature will allow solar farms to acquire additional nighttime lighting according to their needs. With this, we would be able to stabilize the electricity grids, in addition to making solar energy even more economically competitive.
As not everything is perfect, we still have some challenges
Even though it is a revolutionary idea (somewhat out of the box, so to speak), the main challenge of the night solar panel is its practical implementation. This is because it will require precise alignment of the satellites, detailed control of the position of the mirrors, and robust communication with ground stations (let’s be honest, doing this at an altitude of 595 kilometers is quite difficult).
There are also some doubts about whether the intensity of the reflected light will be sufficient to be economically viable in the long term, even though the company has already carried out some tests and achieved around 500 watts per square meter. Yes, this result is impressive because we are talking about light reflected from almost 250 meters away. Remember that this was not the first time that a solar panel worked unconventionally; recently, they discovered an ‘impossible’ material that made solar panels operate quite strangely.
