mirrors for solar panels?

i don’t know how much sun a regular panel can take before it gets damaged, i’m sure there’s a limit due to the heat and UV etc rays (breakdown the material?) … but what about mirrors that tilt and shuffle more sunlight on the panel? at noon the mirrors would be turned away to avoid overload, later in the day you get 2 or 3 times the light, so the power output stays the same (at max hopefully) till late in the day

that way you get more max peak hours out of one panel, and mirrors are soo much cheaper (though not 100% effective). besides one could get even peak power on a cloudy day with all light on the panel?

there are companies that built lenses (e.g. fresnel) for panels to get more power per sqft, but i think a plain old mirror is cheaper to make – except the tracking might be more $

think of those old cardboard box type thingys that are coated with aluminum foil and wrap around your face to give you a really good tan!

Comments (1)

adminSeptember 12th, 2008 at 11:51 pm

i guess someone had the same idea, a few years earlier – very interesting book here to read:

http://www.powerfromthesun.net/book.htm

covers everything solar, equipment, lots of theory etc – worth the time!