I know Elon is very negative towards the idea of space solar power, and I have to mostly agree. However, I keep seeing information about how you get 2x the power from solar panels in space, and I find this suspect. Even a lot of the pro-space-solar camp have used this figure, but shouldn't it actually be quite a bit more than 2x?
If you look at the power collected by a solar panel over the day, it tends to follow a bell curve during daylight hours. Maybe if you have a motorized system that can follow the sun you might get a better return, but I would guess it's still somewhat of a bell curve. It's not like for half the day you get 0% and half the day you get 100%. It's more like half they day you get 0%, and the other half you get maybe an average of 50% to 60% if you were to average the bell curve. In space you should be able to get 100% all day long. I would guess this would make space solar panels able to collect at least 3x what they can on Earth. Factor in clouds, weather, and particulates taking away some of the potential, and it's probably more like 4x.
That said, I'm sure the economics of it still wouldn't work. But I'm just wondering if anyone has done any calculations or research to see what the real difference would be (not including conversion losses).
If you look at the power collected by a solar panel over the day, it tends to follow a bell curve during daylight hours. Maybe if you have a motorized system that can follow the sun you might get a better return, but I would guess it's still somewhat of a bell curve. It's not like for half the day you get 0% and half the day you get 100%. It's more like half they day you get 0%, and the other half you get maybe an average of 50% to 60% if you were to average the bell curve. In space you should be able to get 100% all day long. I would guess this would make space solar panels able to collect at least 3x what they can on Earth. Factor in clouds, weather, and particulates taking away some of the potential, and it's probably more like 4x.
That said, I'm sure the economics of it still wouldn't work. But I'm just wondering if anyone has done any calculations or research to see what the real difference would be (not including conversion losses).