If I had a van with let’s say 600w of solar panels on the roof and I park it under those crazy bright parking lot lights overnight would I see any meaningful charge on my batteries?
In: Technology
No. Your eyes are tricking you because they’re so good at adjusting to different light levels. Full sunlight is around 1000W per square meter. A brightly illuminated parking lot is around 1-2W per square meter. So your 600W of solar panels will produce maybe 0.6W-1.2W. You’d need 5 times as many panels just to slow-charge a phone.
No. It doesnt really matter how much solar panel you have on your car, the limit is the light bulb its self. Assuming its a modern super bright led street light, it is pulling ~73 Watts. So at best you could get ~73 watts. Very little considering your battery is measured in Kilowatt hours. And that is before factoring in various (very large_ inefficiencies in this process.
No. In might look bright compard to the night but is not bright compared to daytime.
The illumination level of steetlight is not high, typically the are 10 to 15 lux. The bright one are brighter but still not a lot compared to the sun. Compare to Fotball where FIFA rules are 2400 lux for a arena with international matches, it is primary for the TV broadcast but is 750 lux for national game for players and 200 for training. The bright streetlight light is somewhere in that range. [https://www.tu-bu.com/how-to-choose-the-best-lighting-design-for-football-stadium-field](https://www.tu-bu.com/how-to-choose-the-best-lighting-design-for-football-stadium-field)
Compare that to direct sunlight is at 130,000 lux, If you are just shaded from direct sunlight but the blue sky and the ground hits you a sunny day the illumination is around 10,000 lux. A overcast day ius around 1,000 lux.
So if the solar pannel power output is directly proportional to the light level the might get around 6W. In practice at that low light level the practical result is most of the times zero power out.
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