solar power as we know it is about to change from daytime to nighttime all thanks to a new piece of technology this device can produce electricity even after the sun has set we’re super fortunate to have this sitting here at the University of New South Wales scientists are now able to harness the power of radiation off warm surfaces so any time you point an infrared camera at something and you see oh that is glowing we can put our semiconductor device onto that surface we can generate power from it it’s the first time anyone in the world has proven it’s possible what we’ve done at the moment could power a wrist watch from your own body heat still in its infancy the technology can only generate around 100,000 times less than that supplied by a solar panel because this was really like the first experimental experimental demonstration it wasn’t that we you know were trying to reach the maximum possible efficiency if you wanted to put this on your roof and power meaningful appliances then you’d be able to maybe power your Wi-Fi at night from this thermal imaging cameras show how much radiation there is at night the next phase of development looks at how nighttime solar will charge satellites in space there’s a little more optimizing to do before maybe it’s uh useful terrestrially um but we are working for for to get these on uh a spacecraft a satellite in in the next couple of years earlier this month the team at the University of New South Wales was recognized as one of 55 finalists at the Eureka science Awards Digby worth M ABC News Sydney