Thursday, July 21, 2022

Solar panels most efficient below 35 C

We learn from Britain: over 100 F (ambient, 100 kPa), a 3.3 xW panel delivers only 2.8 xW. The Telegraph talks giga-. I mean, now that Boris Johnson isn't around, it's safe for that rag to admit his Government's greenening was all cods. At last.

The Moon in daylight gets hotter than this. But that's a ground heat; solar panels will be raised above the regolith in near-vacuum. We have got pretty good at solar-power in LEO, I understand. The British inefficiencies, I suspect, are caused by hotter oxygen [UPDATE 12/25 - see below]. As for Luna, Handmer was hoping to beam energy from Earth instead anyway.

Taking ambient atmospheric temperature/pressure into consideration: for taking solar-energy, Venus might be a very good bet (over the clouds) since (1) very cold and (2) low-atmo.

FIXIT 12/25: EtaVolt in Singapore. Such damage is atmospheric - but a lot is just ambient heat.

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