I'm unsure to understand everything but i think this theory is very seductive and beautiful. Using general physics laws to get energy. Emit something to get DC energy: give to get back.
https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2014/03/infrared-new-renewable-energy-source
And the infrared diode problem had been solved https://interestingengineering.com/researchers-create-diode-that-generates-electricity-using-infrared-energy
Do you have more information on infrared? I consider it a very interesting solution, much cleaner than the traditional solar panels. What do you think of it?
I liked the statement of your question. In solar thermal systems, the energy production is based on the conversion of the thermal (or heat) portion of the solar radiation to electricity as a final output. In these systems, the infrared radiation contributes to the energy production. This is unlike photovoltaic where another part of the spectrum (photon energy) is used for directly producing electricity.
I think traditional photo-voltaic system was created for its use in outer space, so it can't have a good productivity below kilometers of atmosphere and on the top of it, those systems have to be frequently recycled, offering another source of pollution with heavy metals.
IMHO, any human activity is associated with alterations of the natural energy balance. Some of these alterations have undesirable effects on the ecological system and the environment. Therefore, we should try to minimise the undesirable impacts of our good activities for achieving our honest targets.
I am not sure exactly what you are trying to do here. Plants use optical energy mainly in the orange/red spectrum to crack water molecules to get hydrogen ions and electrons, which are then used to power cellular systems that capture CO2 and build sugars. I don't think chlorophyll or any of the other possible dyes they use can generate enough potential to split a water molecule (it takes two chlorophyll molecules working in series to split water using red light). Using infra red will need maybe three or four molecules all connected end to end to get enough potential of about 1.3 V because of the lower photon energy of IR and the poor efficiency of the electron/hole conduction system - you lose a lot of energy trying to connect one dye molecule to the next and the next and so on.
I totally and whole heartedly agree with Dr El-Shimy about undesirable impacts on the ecosystem though!!!
They just solved the low voltage problem in Saudi Arabia with a diode that transforms it in DC. https://interestingengineering.com/researchers-create-diode-that-generates-electricity-using-infrared-energy
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