Okay, no one's done this yet so there must be some reason this is a stupid idea. Hear me out though, no teasing if I just don't see why this doesn't work. I don't want to sell this, I just want someone to run with it if it works.
Solar panels, so part of the problem is the light and heat reflected off the panels, right? Why couldn't someone rig up panels with some sort of one-way mirror? That way the light is allowed in but is unable to reflect back out? Wouldn't that even trap more of the light in, so to speak? If it wouldn't work, can you tell me the science behind why?
there's already a stupid questions thread and also google exists.
sage, frick you
I wonder if the irrational anger associated with autistic outbursts like this post lead to higher blood pressure or heart problems. Hm.
You can't say it's a stupid question if you personally don't have the actual answer.
I'm pretty sure the inventors and engineers and scientists who have spent years of their careers dedicated solely to the problem of improving the efficiency of solar panels have already tried any of the "simple" ideas that make sense to try.
As far as your idea, a one-way mirror would reduce the amount of light that reaches the panel, not increase it. They're reflective and allow a smaller portion of light through than they reflect back. That's why they're used for things like sunglasses.
Go try your experiment yourself. Go stand in the sun with a pair of mirrored sunglasses and an actual mirror. Hold the sunglasses in front of the mirror. By your logic, light should pass the back of the sunglasses, then bounce back and forth between the mirror and the front of the sunglasses, and create an infinitely bright light source.
Did it work? Did you create the brightest object in the known universe?
This idea is on par with "perpetual motion" ideas.
>All that
>Didn't answer the question
Big solar is here and they are pissed for not thinking of this. Now it's public domain.
The light bounces at the interface between air and glass. Adding a one way mirror won't fix that, since the light first has to traverse it to become trapped by it. Anti reflective coatings are already used to fix that problem.
Heat reflecting off the panels may create other issues, but without it the panel itself gets hotter and that can significantly decrease operating efficiency
What you are describing would be a good way to heat water with solar energy, but is the opposite of what you want for PV, at least as it relates to heat gain.
Dude weed
Because there's really no such thing as a "one way mirror". The ones you see at police stations are just glass and the room on one side is significantly darker than the other.
heres an idea nobody has ever thought of:
instead of putting up 20 solar panels (expensive) put up 20 mirrors (cheap) and 1 solar panel and have the mirrors aim at the one panel.
heres the problem with it:
solar panels are shit. solar panel efficiency is basically zero and get lower the warmer it gets (hint: the sun is warm)
put up solar water heater instead and drive a steam turbine is actually more efficient.
one way mirrors work by letting the darker area see the brighter area, your mirror would actually just end up reflecting sunlight away. Also part of the problem with solar panels is that they heat up, rather than absorb the light, you don't want to keep it warm--that lowers the efficiency of it.
people have thought of that and have done exactly that and for a longer time than solar panels have existed, often for cooking
>people have thought of that and have done exactly that and for a longer time than solar panels have existed, often for cooking
They use it for electricity generation as well.
But instead of photovoltaics, they use the heat energy to power a turbine to generate power.
will we ever find a better way to harvest energy than forcing boiling stuff through a turbine?
people in the past did but then freed them for some reason
Not unless we discover some decent sized loopholes in the known laws of physics and material sciences.
Yes, Commonwealth energy systems is using magnetic Flux to directly make electricity.
When there will be space ships with warp drive it will turn out that the main process in their engine room will be that of boiling some water.
And the guns will be M2 Brownings. Can't perfect perfection
It works for cats
How does the mirror know there is a solar panel there, huh?
As as already been said, one-way mirrors don't really exist. They are mirrored on both sides and work because the viewing room doesn't have lights on, therefore there isn't much light to reflect and block the image from the room being viewed. If you turn the light on in the viewing room it becomes visible to the other side.
In the context of the solar panel, this just means that the mirrored outer surface will reflect the sun and reduce the amount of light that reaches the solar panel.
>steampunk space ship adjusting the speed of its various turbines to act as reaction wheels
Yes please.
Since nobody could be bothered to actually give good answer:
apart from the thermodynamical limit for solar panels that generate electricity (Shockley-queisser-limit iirc), efficiency is indeed limited by the amount of light with the right color reaching the panel.
Considering the angle of impact = angle of reflection rule, you can already reduce reflection from the glass layer by having the panels set orthogonally to the incoming light rays.
The rest of the reflection is reduced by special anti-reflective coatings, which kinda goes in the direction of your idea.
I don't think that having radiation that's not absorbed be reflected back onto the panel would increase efficiency, because probably it was the wrong wavelength or the needed coating would reduce the initially incoming light, reducing total efficiency. Also, the glass is usually glued directly to the silicon, so there is no "air-glass" boundary as in your picture anyways where light could be reflected.
Go look up the Shockley-queisser-limit article on wikipedia, it dives into the physical limits and basic workings of solar panels...
As some other anon already said, most of those "smart ideas that totally could solve problem X" probably have been thought about 50 years ago by someone a lot smarter.. I know that feel