can a magnifying glass to increase the power of a solar panel?

Answer 1

Yes, but mostly no. While you can get more current out of a small solar cell by concentrating sunlight on it with a lens, the concentrated sunlight also heats the solar cell. Photoelectric cells are less efficient when hot, so if you concentrate the sunlight by a factor of four you will get somewhat less than four times as much current. Plus, you can fairly quickly reach a point where the heat will destroy the cell.

So a square meter of bare solar electric cells will give you more electricity than a square meter of lenses and photocells, and is lighter, more economical, and more reliable.

On the other hand, lenses (or reflectors) will increase the efficiency of thermal solar collectors; for example, systems that produce hot water or steam. In this case, efficiency is proportional to the temperature rise, so concentrating the sunlight is a big plus.

Answer 2

Yes. If the magnifying glass can concentrate the solar energy across the whole solar panel(huge magnifying glass). Otherwise, if you just concentrate light on a tiny portion of the solar panel, I doubt it will help much.
This is the principle behind a power generating plant I saw on TV once. There is a tower which at the top there's a circular solar panel, and all around the base of the tower are curved mirrors which reflect and concentrate the solar energy on the tower. So in a sense they are using mirrors to gather all of the solar energy across a wide area and concentrate it on a small area.

Answer 3

The more light you can get on your panel, the more current you will get out. There is a limit as mentioned by another poster in that the IR portion of sunlight can heat the panel up and then its efficiency goes down. Apparently there are special types of solar cells made specifically to be used with concentrators.

Perhaps a device that combines a photoelectric panel with a solar water heater to remove the "waste heat" would be the answer. That way you'd get hot water and electricity.

I guess the question is can you make solar concentation devices cheaper and more reliable than solar cells.

Answer 4

Yes. The magnifying glass, however, is often times a concave mirror, rather than a lense. It concentrates the sun's rays on one spot, that is, on the solar panel.

Answer 5

Actually that's a very good question that needs some research and trials. Good ideas are born of questions like that. We have figured out how to use the sun's energy to make electrical power. If that energy can be multiplied (magnified) could the electric produced be produced more easily and/or economically and/or at greater levels?
Hmmmm.

Answer 6

No. Solar panels work on the photo-electric effect using light waves to excite certain material to generate electricity. It has nothing to do with thermal energy.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

Actually yes because it is focusing more enerjy in one spot

Answer 9

yes thermal energy