Generate Electricity from Shadows

利用阴影发电

Generate electricity from shadows? It sounds like something from a sci-fi movie, but the newly revealed Shadow-Effect Energy Generator (SEG) is a real prototype device. The fascinating concept could help us to transform the way renewable energy is generated indoors.

用阴影来发电？这听起来仿佛是科幻电影里才会出现的，但最近发布的阴影效应能量生成器是真实存在的原型装置。这个神奇的概念能帮助我们改变在室内生成可再生能源的方式。

The SEG uses the contrast between darkness and light to produce electricity. It's made up of a series of thin strips of gold film on a silicon wafer, placed on top of a flexible plastic base.

阴影效应能量生成器利用明暗对比来发电，它由附在硅晶片上的若干薄金片组成，下层是一个软塑料底座。

Whereas shadows are usually a problem for renewable solar energy production, here they're actually harnessed to keep on generating power. The technology - which is cheaper to produce than a typical solar cell, according to its developers - produces small amounts of power and could be used in mobile gadgets, for example.

尽管阴影通常是可再生太阳能生产中的一大问题，但在这儿它们实际上被用来持续发电。据开发人员介绍，该科技比一般的太阳能电池生产成本更低，产出的电量不高，可用于移动设备等。

"Shadows are omnipresent, and we often take them for granted," says materials scientist Tan Swee Ching, from the National University of Singapore (NUS). "In conventional photovoltaic or optoelectronic applications where a steady source of light is used to power devices, the presence of shadows is undesirable, since it degrades the performance of devices. "

新加坡国立大学材料科学家陈瑞深说：“阴影无处不在，于是我们经常以为它的存在是理所当然的。在传统的光电应用中，稳定光源被用来给设备供电，人们不喜欢影子的存在，因为它降低了设备的性能。”

"In this work, we capitalised on the illumination contrast caused by shadows as an indirect source of power. The contrast in illumination induces a voltage difference between the shadow and illuminated sections, resulting in an electric current. This novel concept of harvesting energy in the presence of shadows is unprecedented."

“在这项工作中，我们利用了影子产生的明暗对比，并将其作为间接能源。明暗对比使阴影部分和光亮部分之间有电压差，从而产生电流。这种在阴影中获取能量的新概念前所未有。”