eli5: Do solar panels only work with sunlight, or can they be tuned to capture energy from other wavelengths outside the visible spectrum?

Question

eli5: Do solar panels only work with sunlight, or can they be tuned to capture energy from other wavelengths outside the visible spectrum?

In: 2876

Answer 1

As other responders have said: combining different semiconductors in multi-junction cells makes use of this. The first adopters at large scale seem to be First Solar along with Sunpower:
https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2022/04/01/sunpower-in-late-stage-discussions-with-first-solar-to-produce-solar-modules-with-tandem-technology/
CdTe harvests more of the short-wave spectrum along with Silicon harvesting the longer wavelengths of the sun’s spectrum.