3 ms·

Summer peak sun hours will be much more than the annual average, when road trips are normally taken. Admittedly, it's not 12 hours, probably closer to 7-8 hours

Summer peak sun hours will be much more than the annual average, when road trips are normally taken. Admittedly, it's not 12 hours, probably closer to 7-8 hours. Theoretical max efficiency still uses a number of assumptions to get to 40%. If we learned anything from the path of semiconductors, it's that we shouldn't try to predict what's impossible. According to these 10-year predictions, current microprocessors are impossible to manufacture. And so were last year's, and the year before, going all the way back to the 1980s. I'm not going to accept that infinite range cars are an impossibility. They may be impossible with today's technology, but what about the technology we have 30 years from now? Maybe solar charging is not the way we will do it, but I'm sure we will see it happen.

hedgie13 13y ago
With future technology, perpetuum mobile may become possible. Or maybe not. Electric cars still may be a good idea in a long run. Even if they can not generate their own energy.
myself248 13y ago
Theoretical maximum is not talking about manufacturability, we're talking about within the laws of physics conceivably possible. Theoretical max efficiency of PV is about 40%, in the same way that theoretical max transistor density is one per atom. It's about the characteristics of sunlight as much as anything, and advances in manufacturing may bring us closer to the limit but not beyond it.
- koblenski 13y ago
  Many of the arguments claiming that Moore's law would end were based on the physical properties of light in lithography and the material characteristics of silicon substrate and gate oxide interactions. These are issues that people thought were physical limitations, but we found ways around them. Theoretical max efficiency of PV also relies on assumptions about the physical properties of light in absorption and the materials being used. I'm not saying we know how to get around these limitations right now. I'm saying that we can't predict future innovations that will make the impossible possible.

hedgie13 13y ago

With future technology, perpetuum mobile may become possible. Or maybe not. Electric cars still may be a good idea in a long run. Even if they can not generate their own energy.

myself248 13y ago

Theoretical maximum is not talking about manufacturability, we're talking about within the laws of physics conceivably possible. Theoretical max efficiency of PV is about 40%, in the same way that theoretical max transistor density is one per atom. It's about the characteristics of sunlight as much as anything, and advances in manufacturing may bring us closer to the limit but not beyond it.

koblenski 13y ago
Many of the arguments claiming that Moore's law would end were based on the physical properties of light in lithography and the material characteristics of silicon substrate and gate oxide interactions. These are issues that people thought were physical limitations, but we found ways around them. Theoretical max efficiency of PV also relies on assumptions about the physical properties of light in absorption and the materials being used. I'm not saying we know how to get around these limitations right now. I'm saying that we can't predict future innovations that will make the impossible possible.