💧🔋 #Solar panels usually stop working when the clouds roll in, but a team from the Institute of Materials #Science of #Seville has a fix.

[tksst@fediscience.org]

#Solar panels usually stop working when the clouds roll in, but a team from the Institute of Materials #Science of #Seville has a fix. They developed a hybrid panel that can harvest energy from the impact of just one raindrop.

https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/hybrid-solar-panel-turns-raindrops-into-electricity/

‍️ How do solar panels work? https://seethis.tv/post/how-do-solar-panels-work

#science #technology #tech #energy #renewables #engineering #physics #environment #innovation

[e_es@chaos.social]

@tksst

volt is not energy dear kids...

[joeyh@sunbeam.city]

@tksst it is false (and a common bit of oil propaganda) that solar panes don't work when it's cloudy or raining. I'll guarantee you that any modern $100 solar panel of 500 watts still produces more power in the rain than this pizeoelectric effect does.

I am offgrid and regularly charge my EV from solar in the rain, for crying out loud.

[dasgrueneblatt@wien.rocks]

@joeyh @tksst Yes, this is important. They also work better when it's cooler, so a cloudy cold day is not bad.

[dasgrueneblatt@wien.rocks]

@e_es @tksst :masto_reading "about 4 milliwatts per square centimeter"

Okay, so that would be 4 Watt per square meter, if that works on larger surfaces. (There must be a reason why they're talking about square centimeters though.)

Our panels are a bit over two square meters each, so that would be 8-9 Watts per panel. The panels are rated Iike 460 Wpeak each (I don't remember exactly), and actually produce a little bit more. So that's something like 2% of the photovoltaic power as raindropvoltaic power?

"is more than enough to keep low-power electronics humming without a battery"

Well, depends on what you consider low-power electronics I guess. But they probably shouldn't hum then.

It's a start. Like all those batteries, or the capturing power from the weight of rolling cars.

[chris_e_simpson@hachyderm.io]

@dasgrueneblatt @joeyh @tksst I recently saw a video about gluing hydrogels to the back of solar panels so that they can sweat when the temperature rises meaning they don't underperform when it gets hot

[dasgrueneblatt@wien.rocks]

@chris_e_simpson Yes! Every summer I think about how we could cool them. Hydrogels? I need to look this up. Thank you. Do they evaporate and need to be refilled somehow?

I keep thinking of putting a drip watering hose along the top of the roof so that the tiles below the panel can be wet, but I'm scared of side effects (and also of climbing on the roof).

@joeyh @tksst

[chris_e_simpson@hachyderm.io]

@dasgrueneblatt @joeyh @tksst iirc they absorb all the moisture they need from the air at night and then sweat it out in the day. I'll try and find the video when I'm at my desk (if I remember)

[kevinrns@mstdn.social]

@joeyh @tksst

Its not a product - it's a proof concept.

All your tech points are correct.

And solar cells are getting cheaper, better, more advanced every time earth spins back toward sol.

There are thermo- electric devices as well, that can turn heat into electricity, so far too expensive and inefficient, but with research could help EVs turn overheating batteries into stored power, or run on roofs to protect during killer EXXON heat. Climate death heat, already killed thousands.

[otttoz@mastodon.uno]

@tksst spicciamoci a eliminare il petrolio