It makes sense: Solar panels require sunlight in order to collect energy for your home. If that is the case, then it’s impossible for solar panels to work at night, right? The answer to this persistent question is yes.

And no.

While solar panels are unable to gather energy without direct sunlight, a solar energy system can continue to provide energy to a house through the night hours. Through heat collection, storage and release, solar panel systems have the potential to provide a household’s power 24 hours a day.

Storage Improvements

Especially in regions where the sun shines often, it can be a regular occurrence for a house with solar panels to produce more energy during a normal day than it can use. This provides a number of opportunities for the solar panel system on a house to work even after sunset.

While many solar setups send excess power back to the overall grid, some systems are installed with a battery bank that can store and provide power to a house even when the panels themselves are not gathering heat from the sun.

In the past, these battery banks have been inefficient, providing only a fraction of the energy gathered during the day, but as the need for alternative energy has grown, a number of newer technologies have shown promising results.

Heat Is A Constant

As companies and scientists work to create better storage methods for energy, some new technologies are looking beyond the traditional methods for collecting the sun’s energy. The premise is simple: Just because the sun isn’t directly pointing at a solar panel doesn’t mean the sun’s heat is gone.

For some companies, this has led to projects that are looking at inventive ways to turn the sun’s heat into steam to power turbines. In a way, such a project would allow solar panels to “work” at night. In some parts of the world, this could be a huge boon.

Amit Mor, chief executive of Israel-based consulting and investment firm Eco Energy and a former energy adviser to the World Bank, said in a recent article, “(New technologies) can be very useful to developing countries and developed countries alike.”

The Future Is Bright

In today’s terms, it is true that standard photovoltaic solar panels cannot collect energy at night, but as we’ve seen, that doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways a solar panel system can continue to be useful at night.

Along with the projects to improve storage from today’s systems, scientists also are working on a new, molecular solution that could truly have solar panels working day and night. The project, which would likely involve nanotubes and a liquid substance, would allow energy to be collected and stored indefinitely, ready to be used at any time.

No matter whether the sun is shining high in the sky or darkness has fallen for the night, a solar panel system is always working in one way or another. As time and technology pass, these systems will be able to work harder and provide more energy than ever, any time of day.

If you’d like to find out how installing solar panels on your roof can help you drive your electric bill down to zero, contact us today for a free quote.