科学家发明了“反太阳能电池板”，以捕捉离开地球的能量

Solar power technology shows promise in helping humanity wean itself off of power sources that are far more damaging to the planet. It’s already used for a variety of applications, from powering residential homes to filling batteries on the International Space Station, but solar panels have one pretty huge limitation: they can’t generate power in the dark…or can they?

太阳能技术在帮助人类摆脱对地球危害更大的能源方面显示出了希望。它已经被用于各种各样的应用，从为住宅供电到为国际空间站的电池充电，但是太阳能电池板有一个相当大的限制：它们不能在黑暗中发电……或者它们能吗?

In a new paper published in the journal ACS Photonics, researchers from the University of California, Davis, explain how they built what they are calling an “anti-solar panel.” As the name implies, this new type of “solar” technology works in the opposite way as a traditional solar panel.

在《ACS光子学》杂志上发表的一篇新论文中，来自加州大学戴维斯分校的研究人员解释了他们是如何建造他们所谓的“反太阳能电池板”的。顾名思义，这种新型的“太阳能”技术与传统太阳能电池板的工作方式相反。

Traditional solar panels work by capturing sunlight and converting it into energy that can be used for a variety of purposes. But how could such a thing work in reverse? It’s actually fairly straightforward: Just as with a regular solar panel that is capturing the transfer of energy from the Sun to the Earth, this anti-solar panel captures energy traveling from the Earth out into space.

传统太阳能电池板的工作原理是捕捉阳光并将其转化为可用于多种用途的能量。但这样的事情怎么可能反过来发生呢?它实际上相当简单:就像普通的太阳能电池板捕捉从太阳到地球的能量转移一样，这种反太阳能电池板捕捉从地球到太空的能量。

When a side of the Earth falls into darkness, it almost always gets colder. That heat, which is just another form of energy, is radiated off of the Earth’s surface and, in most cases, lost. This new type of panel actively captures that heat as it’s trying to escape into space and uses it to generate usable energy.

当地球的一面陷入黑暗时，它总是变得更冷。热其实也是能量的另一种形式，它从地球表面辐射出去，在大多数情况下，会损失掉。这种新型的太阳能电池板在热量试图逃逸到太空时，会主动捕获热量，并利用它来生成可用的能量。