this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2026
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Science

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'Reverse Solar Panel' Generates Electricity at Night (www.extremetech.com)
submitted 4 days ago by ooli3@sopuli.xyz to c/science@beehaw.org
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[–] hallettj@leminal.space 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

But they don't have anything to do with the moon. They harvest energy from Earth's black body radiation

[–] Infrapink@thebrainbin.org 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

So they should have been called terral panels.

[–] hallettj@leminal.space 2 points 4 days ago

That's a good one!

I was thinking, Earth's radiation is solar energy, emitting back into space after being absorbed. So a normal solar panel gets solar energy coming down, and this thing gets solar energy going back up. So "reverse" or "upside-down" make sense from that perspective. But wind and hydroelectric also harvest solar energy indirectly. Should we call the sideways solar panels? So yeah, I think "terral" avoids a rabbit hole of madness.

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 days ago

Yeah I know, it just sounded catchy to me