It seems like you could harness massive amounts of energy in orbit full time, in a controlled orbit.
You’re quite right, the amount of solar energy outside our atmosphere is much more than at the surface.
No atmosphere to filter out some of the radiation, no clouds or pollution to reduce the amount of energy.
Leading edge multi-junction cells are capable of nearly 29% efficiency under ideal conditions for spacecraft.
On the surface, current sunlight conversion rates (module efficiencies) can vary from 5-18% in commercial production.
it would depend how much closer to the sun it was in space than on Earth. also, different kinds of radiation could be harnessed, for example very little UV radiation passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, but it could all be harnessed in space. if this could be converted to useable energy, along with other forms of electromagnetic radiation, the potential would be huge.
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You’re quite right, the amount of solar energy outside our atmosphere is much more than at the surface.
No atmosphere to filter out some of the radiation, no clouds or pollution to reduce the amount of energy.
Leading edge multi-junction cells are capable of nearly 29% efficiency under ideal conditions for spacecraft.
On the surface, current sunlight conversion rates (module efficiencies) can vary from 5-18% in commercial production.
References :
Yes they do. How much more? Well, even on a cloudless day the atmosphere absorbs at least 10% of the Sun’s radiant energy, and more when it’s cloudy. And the Sun is below the horizon nearly half the time, but if you’re in a high orbit it’s visible all the time. In space near the Earth, the power available from sunlight is about 1000 watts per square metre. If somebody could invent a cheap, efficient and safe way to transmit solar power from orbit to the Earth’s surface, it would provide much more power than panels on the Earth’s surface.
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Better call NASA on that one.
I guess I could do a search on yahoo and find a number for the amount of power that could be produced in space compaired to on the ground. But I don’t see any need to know that information.
Remember that if it is in space and is not orbiting a planet the sun would always be shining. The best you can ask for is about 6 hours a day of good sun light right in front of a solar module on the ground. So that means 4 times more sun. Then there is the crap in the air and clouds that are not in space so give it 10 times more for that. And then solar modules produce more power the colder they are. It is cold in space depending on how close you are to the sun.
My wild guess is you could get 100 times or more power from the same solar module in space as on the ground.
I guess I was of no help.. <smiles>
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