US breakthrough promises "solar panels" that work in the dark
As every good physicist knows, just because it is dark does not mean there is no light.
Or, to put it another way, we are constantly surrounded by infrared light that the earth radiates as heat after absorbing energy from the sun during the day.
Now researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) claim to have unlocked the secret of harnessing that energy through the development of microscopic nanoantennas, each with a diameter 1/25 the size of a human hair, capable of absorbing infra red energy. And they are confident commercial products based on the technology could be available within five years.
