Solar lights can generate electricity to boil water

Can solar power boil water?

Recent developments have made it possible to use solar power to boil water. Most new buildings already use this grassroots technology to produce hot drinking water. Some even induce it directly into the water buffer by using a single- or three-phase heating element.

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 a solar system boil water without optical concentration?

The new system can boil water under normal levels of sunlight, generating steam without optical concentration. It consists of a multilayered structure, a "solar receiver," that floats on water.

How do solar power systems work?

Concentrating solar power systems harness heat from sunlight to provide electricity for large power stations. Light is reflected in a parabolic trough collector at Abengoa's Solana Plant, serving over 70,000 Arizona homes. Photo by Dennis Schroeder / NREL Many power plants today use fossil fuels as a heat source to boil water.

Can We boil water using the Sun?

To boil water using the Sun, we typically burn fossil fuels carrying several-hundred-million-year-old solar energy that was extracted from underground at great expense. It’s kind of Rube-Goldbergian. We’re fortunate that the Sun’s heat isn’t strong enough to boil the oceans (or us), but extracting the Sun’s energy at a significant scale is tricky.

How does a solar-powered steam generator work?

In 2014, Chen’s group reported the first demonstration of a simple, solar-driven steam generator, in the form of a graphite-covered carbon foam that floats on water. This structure absorbs and localizes the sun’s heat to the water’s surface (the heat would otherwise penetrate down through the water).