Stanford University engineers have invented a new technology that radiates heat away from buildings and sends it directly into space without using electricity.

The revolutionary technology, which can help cool buildings even in sunny days, is an ultrathin, multilayered material that could be installed on a roof like solar panels. But unlike solar panels, the new material turns heat into visible light and beams it away as infrared radiation.

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Interestingly, the infrared radiation is transmitted by the new material through the atmosphere into space without even warming the atmosphere at it passes.

The material consists of seven layers of silicon dioxide and hafnium oxide above a thin layer of silver. The internal structure of this material is designed to radiate heat at an exact frequency to pass safely into space.

It acts like a high-tech mirror that can both siphon heat out of the buildings and reflect the sun's rays, and can sends both into the coldness of space.

Stanford University electrical engineering professor Shanhui Fan described the latest invention as a structure that cools itself without electricity input.

Fan added that since the material basically radiates heat to outer space and reflects sunlight, it can't get heated by the sun. The net result is a significant decrease of temperature, even below ambient air temperature.

In tests, the material showed a cooling rate of around 15 percent, which means it can reduce indoor temperature to nearly 5 degrees Celsius below the outside temperature.

Stanford engineers noted that one possible use of the new cooling technology would be in buildings with limited access to electricity or air conditioning in developing countries. More broadly, engineers see the project as a first step toward using the cold of space as a resource.

"This is very novel and an extraordinarily simple idea," said noted engineering professor Eli Yablonovitch from Berkeley's University of California, who also directs the Center for Energy Efficient Electronics Science.