>From Jed: > 500 times seems too high. I gather the parabolic troughs used at SEGS in > California only concentrate sunlight by a factor of 80 and yet they heat the > devices up to 400 deg C. > > How do you concentrate sunlight 500 times? With a Fresnel lens? Parabolic > trough? It seems to me if you are going to the trouble to do that, the thing > will be pretty hot and you might as well go with large scale solar thermal > steam generator or Stirling engine. I expect they are also ~30% efficient > but lot simpler and cheaper.
Interesting question. Cumulative effect? I would think that would only apply to increasing the amount of concentrated heat, not sunlight. These are solar cells, not solar collectors. Not clear on this: Is heat a contributing factor in the generation of electricity in solar cells? Regards Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
