Researchers harvest electricity from shadow through a low-cost energy generator

Researchers at the National University of Singapore have conducted a study to arrive at a conclusion on how electricity may be produced from the shadow.

A team from NUS Materials Science and Engineering and NUS Physics created a device called a shadow-effect energy generator (SEG) that uses the contrast in illumination between lit and shadowed areas to harvest electricity.

The shadow-effect energy generator is a low-cost device. It has been used to operate on two things –one involves converting illumination contrast from partial shadows castings into electricity and the other serves as a self-powered proximity sensor to monitor passing objects, the study said.

The study, which has been published at pubs.org, says that the SEG performs 200% better than the commercial silicon solar cells under the effects of shadows.

The harvested energy from the SEG device can in fact drive an electronic watch, it said.