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

Can they be tuned to collect energy from a variety of different wavelengths? Yes. Is it worth it? Probably not.

That being said, there is a plan to develop a solar panel that works 24 hrs a day. It’s essentially going to be bifacial with one side pointed to the sky an the other made to collect the IR wavelengths coming off the earth at night. https://electrek.co/2020/02/03/night-solar-panels/

I have my doubts as to the economic viability, but who knows…