IR panels ?

[McCrunchy]

Hello,

 

I was wondering, would it make any sense to try to get electricity from the IR part of the Sun's/Earth's radiation spectrum ? IR covers a very broad region of wavelengths, is emitted day and night, detectors are pretty cheap (they're the ones on your TV set) ... but there must be a reason people aren't really considering them.

 

Thanks,

 

 

McCrunch

[insane_alien]

its ver hard to make a semiconductor junction to generate electricity out of IR.

 

besides, the sun emits most of its light in the visible spectrum.

[Edtharan]

Also, because IR has a lower frequency than visible light, it has less energy per photon. This means that if you could use them to generate electricity, photon for photon you will get less energy.

 

And, as insane_alien said, most of the sun's light (photons) is emitted in the visible wavelengths.