Can any light be converted to energy?

[leaferz]

Hey everyone I absolutely love the forum. Been looking for a few days to find a forum on electronics with more then 100 posts in it

Quick question:

Can any light be converted to energy?

I was wondering specifically about ultraviolet light. I know this may sound way out there but something I wanted to attempt was somehow find a way to get energy from the stars at night. Does anyone know if this type of experiment has been attempted or is even feasible?

The reasoning behind this is to find renewable energy at night. I know there is thermal & wind but can't seem to find any others.

Thanks for your help

 

[Nicksan]

Theres solar but I dont know if any are sensitive enough to charge a cap or battery from moonlight or any other light source at night.

 

[bananasiong]

Stars are also sun, they are just very far far away from us. Why don't you go for the sun?

 

[leaferz]

Theres solar but I dont know if any are sensitive enough to charge a cap or battery from moonlight or any other light source at night.

Stars are also sun, they are just very far far away from us. Why don't you go for the sun?

I guess a solar battery combo is my only bet in this area.

 

[mvs sarma]

If night sky and stars could contribute somuch ultraviolet light that it could be converted to energy, the SUN could have burnt all the population and living organisms on earth. thanks to to OZONE layer , the planet has life sustained.

the proposal is self defeating i fear.

 

[leaferz]

If night sky and stars could contribute somuch ultraviolet light that it could be converted to energy, the SUN could have burnt all the population and living organisms on earth. thanks to to OZONE layer , the planet has life sustained.

the proposal is self defeating i fear.

Great point!

 

[Hero999]

We would still have life on earth even if the ozone layer didn't exist; there would be still be life under the sea.

 

[mvs sarma]

We would still have life on earth even if the ozone layer didn't exist; there would be still be life under the sea.

Perhaps, hero999, you may be right-- i didn't have much knowlege on influence of UV on life under water.--

 

[bandopening]

Of course, any light can be converted to energy, in fact it already IS energy. Probably what you mean, can any light be converted to electronic energy that you can use to power an electronic gadget. That being the case, any light can be converted to conventional electronic energy, the problem is that the converters are pretty inefficient. Most of the available energy in the light is simply converted to heat (energy, but useless), only a fraction of it is converted to usable electronic energy, even the best photo cells that we want to line our roofs with so we can charge batteries converts maybe 10 or 20% of the available energy to stuff that we can store in a battery, and photo cells are really efficient!
Think about this: astronomers use devices that convert all forms of light to electronic signals that they digitize and analyze.
So, the quick answer is, yes. The practical answer is, not very efficiently.
Hope that helps
Ron