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DJI Phantom 3 is 0.3m wide and needs 120W to fly. Solar radiation at surface is 1000W/m2. 0.3m0.3m1000 = 90W at 100% efficiency. They claim 29% eficiency* (comp
by dvh 7y ago
DJI Phantom 3 is 0.3m wide and needs 120W to fly. Solar radiation at surface is 1000W/m2. 0.3m0.3m1000 = 90W at 100% efficiency. They claim 29% eficiency* (compared to regular 23%) which is only 26W out of 120W in ideal circumstances, realistically it would be maybe 1/3 of it. It will not fly.
You can safely ignore ALL articles about breakthroughs in solar cell efficiency and look only at what is sold in shops because that's the only thing that matters. For years this has been 21-23% despite 5 or more articles about solar panel efficiency breakthrough every month for the last 20 years.
- Causality1 7y agoIt's the same as the "OMG this new battery will power your phone for years!!!" bullshit articles that come around every six months.
- walrus01 7y agoI essentially second everything that the person above is saying. There are an endless number of press releases and public relations bullshit articles put out by people who have some new "breakthrough" in photovoltaics. Whether it's special weird cells, or flower shaped ground mount things, or whatever. What I believe in, is what I can pull out my visa card and buy right now. And at the moment, here's what that looks like: One pallet load (22 panels), of high quality 156mm monocrystalline silicon cells, assembled into a 1.99 x 0.99 meter sized panel. Rated at 370W STC (standard test conditions) per panel. Under $0.60/watt. STC: https://www.altestore.com/blog/2016/04/how-do-i-read-specifications-of-my-solar-panel/ https://www.altestore.com/blog/2016/04/how-do-i-read-specifi... Everything else is either so high priced that you have to contact a sales person to buy it (weird fresnel lens concentrator and triple junction GaAs cells intended for use on spacecraft), or is not manufactured in sufficient quantity to gain even 1% of market share, and therefore is not stocked by major photovoltaic equipment dealers.
- IanCal 7y agoThe article is not about solar cells though. It's about thermophotovoltalics, where you'd use a high temperature heat source.
- lgats 7y agoQuadcopter "drones" are much less efficient than winged plane "drones". Additionally, they have the large surface area of the wings to collect more solar energy. Though the image does show a consumer quadcopter device...
- Gravityloss 7y agoYeah the Airbus Zephyr solar powered drone was up for 25 days.