A solar panel that can generate energy at night has been developed

 Standard solar panels cannot produce energy at night because they need light for power generation. A new system developed allows to produce energy from solar panels at night with the Seebeck effect or the thermoelectric effect. Stanford University researchers have developed a solar panel system that can be used as a continuously renewable power source for both day and night. The system can produce a significant amount of energy during the day and a small amount of energy at night.

 Solar panels work like a conventional panel during the day but use integrated hardware to continue generating electricity at night. Panels equipped with thermoelectric generators can generate electricity from the temperature difference between the ambient air and the surface of the solar panel after the sun goes down. Solar panels with improved daytime efficiency and a small nightly output can output up to about 200 watts per square meter during the day, while nighttime output is only around 50 milliwatts in the same area. While the research team stated that they will continue to develop it to increase system efficiency, Shanhui Fan, one of the researchers of the project, said: "So, this is significantly lower but could potentially be useful for some low power density applications."