Infrared: A new renewable energy source?
Publish Date: 04/03/2014
By Author: World of Renewables Network Editors In Category: Renewables News Harvard Physicists Propose a Device to Capture Energy from the Earch's Infrared Emissions to Outer Space
Cambridge, Mass. – March 3, 2014 – When the sun sets on a remote
desert outpost and solar panels shut down, what energy source
will provide power through the night? A battery, perhaps, or an
old diesel generator? Perhaps something strange and new.
Physicists at the Harvard
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) envision a
device that would harvest energy from Earth’s infrared emissions
into outer space.
Heated by the sun, our planet is warm compared to the frigid
vacuum beyond. Thanks to recent technological advances, the
researchers say, that heat imbalance could soon be transformed
into direct-current (DC) power, taking advantage of a vast and
untapped energy source.
Their analysis of the thermodynamics, practical concerns, and
technological requirements will be published this week in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“It’s not at all obvious, at first, how you would generate DC
power by emitting infrared light in free space toward the cold,”
says principal investigator Federico Capasso, the Robert L.
Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior
Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at Harvard SEAS. “To
generate power by emitting, not by absorbing light, that’s
weird. It makes sense physically once you think about it, but
it’s highly counterintuitive. We’re talking about the use of
physics at the nanoscale for a completely new application.”
For more information on this article: http://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2014/03/infrared-new-renewable-energy-source
© Copyright - Network Managed by Pangea Digital Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. http://www.worldofrenewables.com/renewables_news/infrared_a_new_renewable_energy_source.html |