I'm going to answer my own question, as I think Andrew either won't or can't.
The subject plane's wingspan is 9.5 meters, let's say we'll be able to fit 12 square meters of PV cells. When it is summer and the sun is shining, and it is shining directly down (local apparent noon), about 1000 watts per square meter reach the earth. So the maximum amount of power available for the PV cells to absorb is 12,000 watts, under exactly the right conditions. The subject plane has two engines, 30,000 watts each, so it requires 60,000 watts to fly. 100% efficient PV cells won't do it. What is the current state of the art, 35% efficient? Solar won't get you there, unless you can violate the laws of physics. ------------- Max Charleston SC On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 1:54 PM, Meade Dillon <dillonm...@gmail.com> wrote: > Please tell us the amount of power (kilowatts) in a square meter of > sunlight at sea level. Now compare that to the amount of power required to > fly an airplane, and the square meters of wing surface on the upper wings > of the subject airplane. A little simple math, fill in some reasonable > estimates for missing information, and I think you will begin to see that > even if solar panels reach 100% efficiency, they still won't work... > > ------------- > Max > Charleston SC > > On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 1:49 PM, Andrew Strasfogel via Mercedes < > mercedes@okiebenz.com> wrote: > >> I beg to differ. Solar panel efficiencies are climbing relentlessly while >> the manufacturing cost continues to decline. >> >> > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
