if I take a huge magnifying glass and aim a beam of light from the sun on a solar panel , will it produce more energy ?
In: Other
Short answer yes. Long answer “ish”
On earth we are limited to roughly 1.4kw per square metre.
So focusing more energy onto a cell that can handle it will work. But as the cell temperature increases, the power output decreases.
[concentrated PV](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrator_photovoltaics) was a thing for a while, but a path never really explored very much as the cost of cells declined and the requirement for mechanical tracking to keep the magnifying system in line with that sun, ment that its been left alone in favour of single axis movement and more panels.
Other issues like controlling and handling the output of the panel are big problems with cpv, as the control systems are not designed to handle the large voltage swings that the system will generate.
Yes it will, but a regular solar panel may not survive very long.
What you’re talking about is Concentrated Photo Voltiac panels and they are a whole thing on their own. CPV panels sometimes utilize different materials, active watercooling, selective wavelength filters and so forth.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrator_photovoltaics
If you could do a huge magnifying glass it would be better to point the light at one of those arrays that use that light to generate heat for energy as it would be a much more efficient use.
A magnifying lens will collect the light and concentrate it. A bit like a funnel.
If your lens collects over a larger area than three panel would otherwise see then yeah you probably will get more energy. You’ll essentially have just used a bigger solar panel.
(This ignores a few things like efficiency, but never mind).
It’s also possible that you just burn a hole through the panel too, as the sun can have a lot of energy when focused!
Only if you collect more light than would otherwise have hit the panel in the first place. But if you focus it too strongly, the heat would damage the panel, so don’t try to cook it like an anthill.
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