boost solar panel

How to Boost any Solar Panel Output by 75%

Table Of Content

  • Content
  • Conclusion
  • FAQ
  • You May Also Like
  • External Links

Although solar panels are an excellent method to generate environmentally friendly energy for your home or business, they may be costly and deliver less power than expected. While the wattage produced by solar panels may be increased by using a sun tracking system to keep them pointed in the direction of the sun, the added expense of such a system can make even a modest installation prohibitive.

Here's an easy and cheap technique to increase the output of a standard solar panel by 75 percent.

boost solar panel

The theory:

A solar panel's output is significantly reduced on cloudy days and during the early morning and late afternoon, when the sun is lower in the sky. The available light is insufficient, so I tried positioning a mirror so that it would reflect more light onto my solar panel. It worked well, and after some tinkering, I determined that putting a mirror at least twice the size of the solar panel on the ground in front of the panel might increase the output by as much as 75%.

You may avoid the hassle of tracking the sun by positioning your panel and mirror due south and relying on the larger mirror to reflect light onto your panel for an extended period of time during the day.

The practise:

I spent just £10.00 on a small solar panel to put my theory to the test; the photographs and meter readings below will demonstrate its validity. Below, you can see the 1.5-watt solar panel oriented toward the south, simply put on a wood board to prevent the grass from casting a shadow on the panel. In late October, even on a bright sunny day, the solar panel is only generating a little more than half of its peak output, as shown by the meter reading of 0.07 amps, or around 0.84 watts.

You can see how the mirror directs light onto the solar panel in the image below. Nearly at its full capacity, the panel generated 0.12 amps, or 1.44 watts.

If you have a huge mirror, you may increase the solar panel's output by 75 percent just by placing the mirror on the ground in front of the panel.

boost solar panel

Mirrors placed on each side of the panel to reflect light are not effective since the panel will be in shade as the sun travels west. Aside from the ground directly in front of the solar panel, nowhere else will the mirror cast a shadow at any time of day.

When I tested a panel in October on a cloudy day, it only generated 1% of its claimed power, and adding a mirror didn't change that at all.

If you're worried about broken glass on the floor, you may use polished metal instead; in my experience, it works almost as well as mirror glass.

Obviously, if you have solar panels installed on your roof, you won't be able to use this approach.

Doing the math:

A 20-watt solar panel would cost roughly £80 at the current rate of £4 per watt. With a 75% boost in efficiency, you can get the same amount of electricity from a solar panel that is just 35 watts in size, saving you roughly £60. That's almost $2.30 per watt, or £2.30 total. It's true that you'll need to track down a mirror or shiny metal sheet, but even so, the cost savings are substantial.

On a cloudy day, gaining more light onto a solar panel may offer the greatest potential for benefit, but developing a low-cost solar panel tracking system would further increase efficiency. I'll keep trying out other panels and configurations and report back here with my findings.

Conclusion

Although adding additional mirrors to reflect more light onto the solar panel and increase its output further is one of the simplest and least expensive methods to do so, doing so on a bright summer day might cause the panel to overheat and become damaged. My 1.5-watt panel was so hot you couldn't touch it in July when I ran it at twice its rated power for twenty minutes.

boost solar panel

FAQ

How efficient can a solar panel become at its highest setting?

A potential maximum efficiency of 86.8% has been estimated for an endless stack of cells utilizing focused sunlight. The efficiency cap falls to 68.7% when sunlight is confined to a region of the sky no larger than the sun.

How much power can a solar panel with a 100-watt rating produce?

Daily solar energy output from a 100-watt panel is normally between 300 and 600 watt-hours (Wh).

Is it even possible for solar panels to have a 100% efficiency rate?

Because of the second law of thermodynamics, it is impossible to create a solar cell that is capable of producing electricity at 100% efficiency. Carnot's theorem is relevant to photovoltaics and other solar energy systems in particular because the sun's heat serves as the hot side of the "heat engine" and the temperature of the earth's atmosphere serves as the cold side.

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