Hi Roy,
Watts per square meter from sunlight are about 1004 watts. 527 watts are infrared, and 32 watts are ultraviolet.
That leaves 445 for visible light. Given a 17% efficient solar panel harvesting 75 watts is about the best that can be done cheaply. That represents about 4.5 amps.
There are amorphous panels that do harvest more than one frequency of light. Their efficiency is lower overall so their size is even larger. The most famous of these are the Unisolar panels (bankrupt).
There are infrared devices but the efficiency is much lower (for example the millivolt range for gas valves) and the cost is astronomical for an appreciable amount of power. I.E. enough to charge a cell phone.
I think it highly unlikely that they can get 40 amps from the tiny surface area they show in the picture, even using concentrator technology.
RoyB wrote:
Pianotuna - I saw that as well on my battery banks but I would see a 0% to 50% SOC battery wants to use around 15-17AMPS of DC charge for 15-20 minutes or so and then start tapering back as the state of charge gets better.
It appears to me once you get past that first initial high charge point then the solar panels will work for you like gang busters getting to the 85% to 90% charge state in a 3-4 hour time period...
It appears they are wanting to get their panels to give 8 times more output using the magnifying type design panels. That would take the usable 5-6AMPS you see coming from the present day solar panels go to 40-48 DC AMPS if you can believe what they are wanting to get.
Sounds like alot to get to me based on my simple understanding of how the solar panel things works......
Roy Ken
