Engineered Wood Provides Solar Power Even at Night
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
Scientists all over the world are seeking to improve solar efficiency and to find new ways of capturing sunlight for energy. Now, specially modified wood may be a way of both harvesting sunlight and storing it.
Solar energy has a simple but frustrating Achilles heel. It disappears when the sun does. Even the most efficient systems struggle with this basic reality. Most designs therefore have to rely on stacking different materials together - one to absorb sunlight, another to store heat, and then another to protect the system. These layers don’t work seamlessly, wasting energy at every boundary. Now, researchers have come up with an innovative solution: they have succeeded in transforming wood into an all-in-one solar energy system.
By redesigning its internal structure at the nanoscale, they have created a material that can absorb sunlight, store it as heat, and keep generating electricity even after darkness has arrived. “Our work presents a scalable and environmentally friendly wood-based platform for advanced solar thermal energy harvesting,” say the researchers in their new study.
The science involved in their process of re-engineering wood is extremely complex, so OGN will simply focus on the results: It converted 91.27 percent of incoming sunlight into usable heat; when sunlight is removed, the stored heat is released gradually, allowing the system to keep producing electricity even after the light source is gone; the material proved to be durable; and its antimicrobial surface prevented bacterial growth that could degrade performance outdoors.
The bottom line: This work suggests a simple way to build a highly efficient solar system. Here, wood isn’t just a support structure; it absorbs sunlight, stores heat, and protects itself at the same time. However, these are future possibilities. First, the researchers need to make sure their system can work at scale while delivering desirable energy output. Watch this space.
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