Science Fiction Reality – Generating Electricity From Shadows
A simple and cheap shadow generator gets electricity from the borderline between light and shade.
Source: Royal Society of Chemistry
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Even a good sci-fi book wouldn't be ashamed of such an idea. But the prototype of a device called Shadow-Effect Energy Generator (SEG) or more easily The Shadow Generator that creates electricity from the border between light and shadow is completely real. It is totally fascinating and could lead us to generate electricity inside our rooms.
The Shadow Generator is made from a system of thin plates of gold on a silicon substrate and all of this is on top of a flexible polymer. When it comes to solar energy – shades are quite the problem. But the Shadow Generator needs shadows to work. Its creators claim it is cheaper than your typical solar cell and generates enough energy to run most mobile devices.
Tan Swee Ching from the National University of Singapore and his coworkers used the fact that shadows are ever-present. Their Shadow Generator uses the contrast between a lighted environment and an environment in the shadows. This contrast engages the “shadow” mechanism which was experimentally observed using Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy. The result is a completely new concept of generating electricity.
When the Shadow Generator is on the border between light and shadow it is capable of producing two times as much electricity than a classical solar cell under the same conditions. But when the new generator is fully lighted or completely shaded then it creates only negligible or no energy at all.
The creators of the Shadow Generator showcased that when a shadow passes of the generator, for example, thanks to clouds passing by or because of movement of trees in the wind it generates 1.2 Volts. That is enough to power, for example, a digital watch. And with more research and development it should provide more power.
Shadow energy is certainly an interesting addition to all types of renewable energy. But whether it can prove to be commercially viable is a question that needs to be answered.
Sources:
- https://news.nus.edu.sg/research/using-shadow-effect-generate-electricity
- https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2020/EE/D0EE00825G#!divAbstract
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