3 ms·
Maybe this just makes your point, but solar panels being 20% efficient is about "how efficiently it converts energy from the sun into usable electricity" All t
by wrsh07 2y ago
Maybe this just makes your point, but solar panels being 20% efficient is about "how efficiently it converts energy from the sun into usable electricity"
All that matters is the actual power generation since there's no marginal utility of "what else we would use that space for" (unless you're consuming farmland etc for the solar panels)
- immibis 2y agoAh, but a thermal solar panel is more like 60% efficient, and it's built of glass, black spray paint and a garden hose. If the ultimate goal is to heat something with sunlight, you know which approach is the best. Several times as much area coated in special silicon stuff, or.... garden hose spray-painted black. If the purposes are mixed, of course a photovoltaic panel can generate electricity for many purposes, while sunlight shining on a garden hose can only heat water. So it might be a more useful system, even more cost-effective, despite being much less thermally efficient. It's the same with burning things to make heat, versus burning them for electricity and then using electric heaters.
- glenstein 2y agoRight. And the same with electrical energy transmission for the purpose of delivering heat compared vs steam infrastructure.