Energy Seminar – HT25 Week 7: Harvesting energy from the Cold Universe: The missing piece in the renewables puzzle?
On a bright, warm day, the more than 1TW of installed solar power capacity worldwide works tirelessly to light up our houses, charge our cars, power our business and in general, to seamlessly support our daily lives. This remarkable achievement has been made possible by over 60 years of advancements in photovoltaics, which convert the incoming solar radiation into useful energy. However, for the Earth to maintain a stable temperature, it must dissipate heat at a rate roughly equal to the power it receives from the Sun. This natural thermoregulation process, known as radiative cooling, taps into the infinite heat capacity of the ultracold Universe to release excess heat from Earth’s surface into the outer space. Recently, scientists have recognised that this vast, outgoing heat transfer could be harnessed, offering a new renewable pathway toward sustainable energy transition. This talk will cover the fundamentals of radiative cooling, will discuss recent advances in the photonic innovations lab, and will conclude with practical applications including passively cooling our spaces and vehicles, generating electricity in the dark, co-harvesting energy from the Sun and the outer space and more.
Date:
4 March 2025, 17:00
Venue:
Diversity Room, School of Geography
Speaker:
Professor Ioannis Papakonstantinou (UCL)
Organisers:
Dr Tina Fawcett (ECI, University of Oxford),
Karen Parry (Coordinator, Oxford Energy Network)
Organiser contact email address:
info@energy.ox.ac.uk
Hosts:
Dr Tina Fawcett (ECI, University of Oxford),
Karen Parry (Coordinator, Oxford Energy Network)
Part of:
Oxford Energy Network Seminar Series 2024-25
Booking required?:
Required
Booking url:
https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/99022292-2d51-4286-b446-ac01c51980cd@cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91
Booking email:
info@energy.ox.ac.uk
Cost:
0
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Karen Parry
