3 ms·
Efficiency may have doubled, but the book used a very optimistic 30% efficiency, which afaik is still quite a bit higher than even current rates.
by maerF0x0 4y ago
Efficiency may have doubled, but the book used a very optimistic 30% efficiency, which afaik is still quite a bit higher than even current rates.
- philipkglass 4y agoThe book used a very pessimistic 10% efficiency for panels installed in large scale solar farms: https://www.withouthotair.com/c6/page_41.shtml https://www.withouthotair.com/c6/page_41.shtml If a breakthrough of solar technology occurs and the cost of photovoltaics came down enough that we could deploy panels all over the countryside, what is the maximum conceivable production? Well, if we covered 5% of the UK with 10%-efficient panels, we’d have 10% × 100 W/m2 × 200 m2 per person ≈ 50 kWh/day/person. I assumed only 10%-efficient panels, by the way, because I imagine that solar panels would be mass-produced on such a scale only if they were very cheap, and it’s the lower-efficiency panels that will get cheap first. Utility scale panels today are commonly a bit over 20%.