All-in-one device Prototype of the hybrid Sun-universe energy harvester for the simultaneous generation of electricity, heating and cooling. (Courtesy: Gan Huang, KIT)"> All-in-one device Prototype of the hybrid Sun-universe energy harvester for the simultaneous generation of electricity, heating and cooling. (Courtesy: Gan Huang, KIT)

Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany and Stanford University in the US have developed an energy-collecting device that can simultaneously cool, produce electricity and generate heat. In their prototype, a radiative cooling layer reached 6.5 °C below ambient temperature while a solar collector generated electricity and reached nearly 111 °C.

“The new system could be installed on the roofs and facades of buildings to provide these three energy services at once,” says Gan Huang , who is head of the Hybrid Solar Technologies lab at KIT .…