Outdoor Solar Lights

What, if any, improvement in efficiency per square foot or meter is realized by a solar panel in space vs. being mounted on the ground where the light is attenuated by the atmosphere?
In passing, I found a site that gives an output of .89 watts / 4 in. sq for a particular home-mounted panel.

I’m not sure on the exact numbers of solar panel efficiency, however i do know that at the radius of the Earth we should be receiving about 1000W of power per square meter.

This value is lessened by the atmosphere to a value closer to 600W per square meter on the Earth’s surface. (on a really hot day)

That’s a 40% drop in power due to the atmosphere. I’m assuming that the solar panels being in space don’t affect it’s efficiency (as in mechanically). So its power generation should increase by about 40% when in space compared with a ground based panel of the same design.

Hope this helps, Sorry it’s kinda sketchy info…

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3. can a Full moon charge up solar powered garden lights?
4. why does green light no give me a good power output for a solar panel compared to red and blue?
5. Is it possible to use a Solar Panel to power a lightbulb to power a Solar Panel?

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 6:42 am and is filed under mounted solar lights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.