(CNN) Solar panels, true to their name, don't technically work at night. But a California researcher claims he's found a way to keep them generating power long after the sun sets.

Jeremy Munday, a professor in electrical and computer engineering at the University of California - Davis, is working on a panel prototype he says could do just that.

His research recently appeared in the journal ACS Photonics

Here's how it could work: While solar panels are cold objects pointed at the very hot and bright sun to absorb light and generate power, Munday's proposal would work in reverse: His thermoradiative cells would heat up and point at the night sky, a much cooler object. The object that is hot compared to its surroundings will radiate heat as infrared light.

"A regular solar cell generates power by absorbing sunlight, which causes a voltage to appear across the device and for current to flow. In these new devices, light is instead emitted and the current and voltage go in the opposite direction, but you still generate power," Munday said in a statement. "You have to use different materials, but the physics is the same."

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