Posted by gmharris [72.219.148.98] on Wednesday, July 02, 2014 at 12:36:42 :
In Reply to: You don't know what an "order of magnitude" is posted by Sherman in Idaho [72.47.153.28] on Wednesday, July 02, 2014 at 01:42:24 :
I know what an order of magnitude is. Jr. high science, elementary school math. And, I was an artillery officer in the service.
Your math may be O.K., but you need to take a reading class. He said "output" could increase an order of magnitude: 10 times. Not "efficiency". Get the difference? Apparently, you didn't get the difference between the two words, even though I made tried to make it clear by putting the word output in quotes.
There's all kinds of ways that a solar cell can produce 10 times more power. Double the efficiency (to 40%) and increase the power a few times and, there you go.
I didn't say it would be done with today's cells. But, layer the cells or make cells that reflect and concentrate the sun internally or, maybe, just increase their size.
Today's cells become less efficient when they become warmer. What, if a a cell became more efficient as it got warmer by taking advantage of the heat energy?
Here's an example of what is being done in the field today:
"State-of-the-art thin-film solar cells require an amorphous silicon layer that is about 100 nm thick to capture the majority of the available solar energy,” Cao said. “The structure we’re proposing can absorb 90 percent of available solar energy using only a 10-nm-thick layer of amorphous silicon.”
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