what are we doing about the almost 80% loss in energy that we lose with todays standard solar panel?

Question

what are we doing about the almost 80% loss in energy that we lose with todays standard solar panel? what are we doing to drasticly increase these percentages?

Answer 1

Just remember, having no panels is a 100% loss, so capturing 20% is not so bad. The problem seems to be how we look at it. 100% efficiency in conversion would just mean smaller panels, but cost per watt (that's the number you shop for) wouldn't be exceptionally less, of course barring a dramatic and unlikely leap in technology. More advances in consumption technology are a better direction. A house sucking down 50KWH a day would have a heck of a lot of panels, where as a 5KWH a day house could get an equity loan whose monthly payment would be less than an electric bill without a crazy redesign of your house. I have read about metal impregnated polymers having reached up yo 45% efficiency in the lab. This technology has the promise of having a market ready product matching or exceeding today's 18% -22% efficiency, but at a much lower cost in the very near future. Efficiency measured by square meter is important, but price per watt is more so. Good Luck!

Answer 2

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Answer 3

There is no one thing that can improve this to a new level. It is a bunch of little things.
Make the panels black. This will absorb more energy.
Reduce the internal resistance as much as possible.
Try to get the panels thinner with out loosing amperage. This will allow for more efficiency.
Do a bunch of little things like this and it will slowly increase. This is something that can not be done in a year or two. It has to be done over several generations. There is a possibility that some other technology will make it obsolete.

Answer 4

Getting that efficiency up is easier said than done. Currently, the very best that has been achieved in the laboratry is about 39%. And those are purely experimental--and cost tens of thousands of dollars for even small units.

Not to say that higher efficiencies aren't possible--but it's likely to take a long--and expensive--research effort. Currently applications research is focused on reducing the cost of solar panels of more modest effilciency levels--wwhich makes sense. Smaller arrays would be nice--but cheaper ones are the real plus for alternative energy applications.

Answer 5

The rest of the 80% energy is reflected back and not used in energy production.
To increase the percentage of used energy, scientists are trying to use different materials for making the solar panels. There days silicon with another metal(perhaps aluminium) is used. And, these developments are rather slow and not drastic.

Answer 6

Strap a water pipe on it and heat water also. Maybe somebody is just using the wrong wavelength to get power. who knows.