even if it only helped eek out 1% returns, on missions depending on an RTEG that could be years added.
worth keeping an eye on.
Comment on 'Reverse Solar Panel' Generates Electricity at Night
TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 3 days agoYou’re getting downvoted for pointing out that this technology, at optimal efficiency on Earth, generates about 1/100,000 that of a solar panel. “Not very useful” is an understatement (it’s currently fucking useless). Even worse: the title saying “at night” implies a terrestrial usage and misdirects from this technology’s only potential useful application in the future once and if it becomes much better – namely on deep-space missions.
borkborkbork@piefed.social 3 days ago
cheesemoo@lemmy.world 3 days ago
That 1/100,000 comparison doesn’t seem right if these panels generate 1W per square meter as the parent poster said. It sounds like you’re saying regular solar panels generate 100kW per square meter but I’m pretty sure that’s orders of magnitude too high. Am I misinterpreting what you said?
XeroxCool@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Agreed. It’s 1/100 with old panels at 1/300 with modern high performance panels, being up to 300w/m.
raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Outside earths atmosphere. Only ~650 Watts/m^2 reach the surface of our planet.
Thorry@feddit.org 3 days ago
No that’s not right, it’s about 1000 watts/m2 on the surface. But it is on a totally clear day with the sun directly overhead. So depending on your latitude you get less per m2 because the Earth is round.