Harvesting of the infrared energy: Direct collection, up-conversion, and storage

Abstract

Infrared (IR) energy constitutes almost half of the solar radiation coming to the Earth's surface and almost 100% of the outgoing terrestrial radiation. Surprisingly, such a huge energy flux is mostly considered as thermal waste and is not used for practical needs on a large scale. Here, two major methods of the IR energy collection have been briefly reviewed, the direct one and harvesting through up-conversion to the visible range, where this energy can be picked up by the conventional solar cells. Advantages and disadvantages of the above methods have been discussed. The potential of the application of IR dyes for IR energy collection has been demonstrated. Storage of the IR energy as a delayed way of its consumption has also been discussed.