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

The energy we get from the sun is 43% visible, 53% infrared and 4% ultraviolet.

Ultraviolet contains the most energy, but the limited quantity makes it difficult to make use of. If we adjusted existing panels, it would be expensive and would not add much – they still wouldn’t work at night, but would work better in cloudy conditions.

Infrared contains the least energy, which makes it difficult to use for electricity generation. It can be used to heat water, for example, directly, and there are systems that do this. Generally, this is done to help keep the panels cool, which makes them do their normal job better as well.