Solar panels are a great option for generating green energy. Now, researchers have found a way to make them even more useful.
How green is solar energy really?
A team of scientists has developed a solar-powered, autonomous system that not only uses solar panels to generate energy, but also harnesses excess heat to create water from air.
“Improving the efficiency of solar power plants is the need of the hour,” Sunil Mysore, founder and CEO of alternative energy and water conservation startup Hinren Engineering, told Lifewire via LinkedIn. “This will be a milestone in the photovoltaic industry and will go a long way to ensure sustainability in the water-energy-supply cycle.”
Led by Peng Wang, a professor of environmental science and engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, the scientists placed ordinary solar panels on top of a special hydrogel that can capture water vapor from the air. When excess heat from the panels reaches the gel, it releases steam into a box, where it is then condensed into droplets of water.
