Using solar energy to generate electricity by boiling water

How does the Sun generate electricity?

Most technologies for harnessing the sun's energy capture the light itself, which is turned into electricity using photovoltaic materials. Others use the sun's thermal energy, usually concentrating the sunlight with mirrors to generate enough heat to boil water and turn a generating turbine.

Can solar energy solve the water-energy dilemma in an eco-friendly way?

As an abundant and ubiquitous energy source, solar energy has successfully demonstrated its potential in tackling the water-energy dilemma in an eco-friendly way. In this issue of Joule, Wenbin and co-authors creatively propose the co-generation of electricity and freshwater via an integrated PV-membrane distillation system.

How do solar cells produce freshwater?

Thus, the waste heat from the solar cell is efficiently removed and conducted downward stage by stage to produce freshwater. Based on the model simulation, hydrophobic membranes with optimized morphology factors (including thickness, porosity, and pore size) are adopted and these factors refine the thermal management in the system.

Can a light absorbing material get hotter than boiling water?

Bermel explains that if you put an ordinary, dark-colored, light- and heat-absorbing material in direct sunlight, “it can't get much hotter than boiling water,” because the object will reradiate heat almost as fast as it absorbs it. But to generate power efficiently, you need much higher temperatures than that.