Why can’t we amplify the temperature that solar panel receives from the sun to create more energy?

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Why can’t we amplify the temperature that solar panel receives from the sun to create more energy?

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The Sun emits a fixed amount of energy. This energy is distributed evenly in all directions. At the distance the Earth is from the Sun, there is around 1300 watts of energy, in the form of light, flowing through every square meter. You cannot get more energy than that. You can get less, if the panel is not perpendicular to the light rays (it depends on the hour of day and the time of year), if there are clouds, if the panel is dirty… but you can’t get more.

What is important is not the temperature, it’s the energy. You can heat up a bottle of water (1.5 L) by 5°C, or heat up a glass of water (15 cL) by 50°C, by using the same amount of energy.

Also, about solar towers : they are more efficient than photovoltaic panels for an equivalent surface. But this is not because the temperature is higher, but because they work differently. The efficiency of the conversion of light into electricity is more efficient with steam turbines than with photovoltaic panels (but turbines are impractical at a small scale).

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