Drones will fly for days with new photovoltaic engine
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Drones will fly for days with new photovoltaic engine
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Re: Drones will fly for days with new photovoltaic engine
#2So what does this mean, we will be able to have drones flying continuously and getting energy from the sun?
Re: Drones will fly for days with new photovoltaic engine
#3So what does this mean, we will be able to have drones flying continuously and getting energy from the sun?
There's been an efficiency break through for solar cells.
> ... an achievement that could lead to an ultralight engine that can power drones for days.
No such thing exists yet, but that's one of the hype ideas being thrown out there to try and get lay people excited about the breakthrough.
Re: Drones will fly for days with new photovoltaic engine
#4It reads a bit overhyped, considering they claim to power a house with a generator the size of an envelope; that's a hard no since there is a limit on how much energy hits every square meter and it's not THAT much.
Re: Drones will fly for days with new photovoltaic engine
#5So what does this mean, we will be able to have drones flying continuously and getting energy from the sun?
DJI Phantom 3 is 0.3m wide and needs 120W to fly. Solar radiation at surface is 1000W/m2. 0.3m0.3m1000 = 90W at 100% efficiency. They claim 29% eficiency* (compared to regular 23%) which is only 26W out of 120W in ideal circumstances, realistically it would be maybe 1/3 of it. It will not fly.
You can safely ignore ALL articles about breakthroughs in solar cell efficiency and look only at what is sold in shops because that's the only thing that matters. For years this has been 21-23% despite 5 or more articles about solar panel efficiency breakthrough every month for the last 20 years.
Re: Drones will fly for days with new photovoltaic engine
#6[deleted]
Re: Drones will fly for days with new photovoltaic engine
#7It reads a bit overhyped, considering they claim to power a house with a generator the size of an envelope; that's a hard no since there is a limit on how much energy hits every square meter and it's not THAT much.
To elaborate, solar energy hitting the Earth’s surface is about a kilowatt/m^2 if conditions are perfect. If you were able to convert solar power at the maximum theoretical PV efficiency (the Shockley-Queisser limit, 33.7%), you’d need about 3 square meters to just to make toast.
Re: Drones will fly for days with new photovoltaic engine
#8Just increasing the efficiency to 30pct is a pretty big deal. If these could be mass produced cheaply to market, that would be incredible.
Re: Drones will fly for days with new photovoltaic engine
#9It reads a bit overhyped, considering they claim to power a house with a generator the size of an envelope; that's a hard no since there is a limit on how much energy hits every square meter and it's not THAT much.
Yes, the max. energy from sunlight on earth hitting an envelope should be around 20-30 Watts (at 100% efficiency).
Also, the reported 29.1% efficiency have been reached at a temperature of 1,207 °C.
Re: Drones will fly for days with new photovoltaic engine
#10So what does this mean, we will be able to have drones flying continuously and getting energy from the sun?
DJI Phantom 3 is 0.3m wide and needs 120W to fly. Solar radiation at surface is 1000W/m2. 0.3m 0.3m 1000 = 90W at 100% efficiency. They claim 29% eficiency* (compared to regular 23%) which is only 26W out of 120W in ideal circumstances, realistically it would be maybe 1/3 of it. It will not fly. You can safely ignore ALL articles about breakthroughs in solar cell efficiency and look only at what is sold in shops beca…
It's the same as the "OMG this new battery will power your phone for years!!!" bullshit articles that come around every six months.