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Researchers have designed an off-grid, low-cost modular energy source that uses radiative cooling to efficiently produce power for lighting at night. Credit: Lingling Fan and Wei Li, Stanford University

Researchers have designed an off-grid, low-cost modular energy source that can efficiently produce power at night. The system uses commercially available technology and could eventually help meet the need for nighttime lighting in urban areas or provide lighting in developing countries.

Although solar power brings many benefits, its use depends heavily on the distribution of sunlight, which can be limited in many locations and is completely unavailable at night. Systems that store energy produced during the day are typically expensive, thus driving up the cost of using solar power.

To find a less-expensive alternative, researchers led by Shanhui Fan from Stanford University looked to radiative cooling. This approach uses the temperature difference resulting from heat absorbed from the surrounding air and the radiant cooling effect of cold space to generate electricity.