Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins
This suggests the kind of exponential growth akin to Moore's Law:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graph...daily-chart-19
If I understand you correctly, you're saying that there is a theoretical limit to the efficiency of solar cells.
Now, if they are 20% efficient, does that mean that they are absorbing 20% of the incandescent energy from the sun? If so, how large of a panel would I need for a watt of energy? |
Ahh Swanson's law, yes, I see no reason it won't remain true since it deals only in cost and not the tech aspect itself. I am not even looking at that side of things. Even if panels were super cheap they just don't provide much energy for the amount of space required and people don't consider that they have limited lifespans and other maintenance costs... but let's ignore that for now and focus on the tech.
The simple answer is that for 1 KILOWATT of energy per day(you can convert to watt if you want) you need 1 square meter of panel. Average solar energy for most cities is around 5KW per square meter per day. So at 20% efficiency you take 5 X .20 and get 1.
Now here is where it get's interesting.. let's give Teslas to the average two car family and add up their TOTAL HOUSEHOLD electrical energy usage per day. It comes out to around 60KWh per day. So you end up with 60 square meters or around 646 sq ft of solar panels to get to break even.
Learning the realities of solar panels is kinda depressing actually.