The Coldness of Space Can Power Earth: We can hack thermodynamics to cool buildings and light up the night

IT's A SUMMER NIGHT. On the rooftop of a quiet building, a set of panels cools the rooms within and keepsthe lights on, removing heat and generating electricity using the coldness of the sky. That cold isn't in the airaround the building—the night is warm. Rather, the panels reach far beyond Earth's atmosphere to tap thedistant cold of deep space. • Sound crazy? Admittedly, this technology isn't fully available just yet. But we havedemonstrated that by directly using power generated by the cold universe, we can chill water to cool buildingsby as much as 5 °C during the day without electricity and light the night without wires or batteries. As thetechnologyimproves, we see it enabling solar panels that work at night as well as day, powering remote sensors.