How realistic are the solar panels?

[Tripping Pug]

I was just wondering if there was anybody out there in the community who knows how realistic the solar panels in the game are relative to the power output and such compared to a higher quality panel of the same size in real life.

[MechaDraco]

Honestly, I dont know all the science that goes into solar panels in real life, so I honestly cant say for sure one way or the other, but if I were to take my best guess on the matter, I would say no, it just doesnt really seem like in 60 some odd years we wouldnt have developed better panels than what we currently have, and that being in space would improve that collection even further despite distance, though I can imagine the distance would have a factor in this affect, I still am just not certain it would have as large of an affect on what we are seeing, considering it takes quite a few of the largest panels to power even a grav gen, let alone any of the other important systems in the game so far.

[Unconventional]

Originally posted by Mecha Draco:

Honestly, I dont know all the science that goes into solar panels in real life, so I honestly cant say for sure one way or the other, but if I were to take my best guess on the matter, I would say no, it just doesnt really seem like in 60 some odd years we wouldnt have developed better panels than what we currently have, and that being in space would improve that collection even further despite distance, though I can imagine the distance would have a factor in this affect, I still am just not certain it would have as large of an affect on what we are seeing, considering it takes quite a few of the largest panels to power even a grav gen, let alone any of the other important systems in the game so far.

almost the same

[fancyPants]

Well, the sun produces 4e26 Watts of power spread over the surface of a sphere (A = 4*pi*R^2).
So, at any given radius, the power per unit area is (3.18e25 W)/R^2. Each solar panel in the game is 5m x 10m, so 50 m^2 of area.

The limit of solar panel efficiency is ~33.7% (Shockley-Queisser limit). The panels in-game produce 5.85 kW in direct sunlight. This corresponds to a maximum distance from the sun of around 3e8 km if I did the arithmetic correctly.

For reference, this puts the game location squarely in the asteroid belt. Mars is around 2e8 km from the sun, and Jupiter is around 7e8 km from the sun.

Yes, the power outputs are within reason. Given a lower than optimal efficiency (current models are around 22%), the numbers would put the game even closer to the earth.

[Mojo]

Well in a game where gravity has no effect on a ship unless you add artifical mass to it, where you can throw a cockpit, thrusters and gyroscope on to a set of stairs and it is a flyable ship, then the chances of a solar panel being 100% accurate I would say are slim. :)

[Mork]

Reviving a dead post a bit but I didn' want to start a second one on the same topic. Did a bit of goggle and wiki research.

Total available power available in space in earth orbit is around 1366W/m2 it is less on earths surface. Also while by a significant amount it depends on where you are but you can get up to 1000w/m2 or so in a good place on a clear day.

One large solar panel is 10m x 5m or 50m2 has a total possible power of 68,300W or 0.0683MW but this assumes you can convert 100% of the sunlight into electricity.

The conversion rate of a vanilla large solar panel in game is 0.12MW i think, is equal to 174% efficiency assuming the ammount of sunlight is it in is equal to what is available in earth orbit. Since it can't produce more energy than it is available the amount of energy avaiable is higher where ever SE is set. Somewhere around a venus orbit to get under 100% efficiency. Originally the solar panels were set at 0.06MW which would have been 87% efficiency at earth orbit.

Currently the best inlab 4 multi junction solar panels can get up to 37-38% without a concentrator (manifying lens). With the new nano and meta materials being developed I expect they will keep getting better. Also the use of multjunction just means multiple layers that absorb different wavelengths of light while the surface layers left the wavelengths they dont absorb through to the lower layers.

For the current technology we have we would need to be somewhere around Mercury's orbit to generate 120kW from a 50m3 panel.

Note that the more solar energy from being closer to the sun the more heat your ship would techically have to deal with as well.

The massive solar panels on the ISS only generates under 700kW of power and only for half a day.(effectively 350kW average over the day assuming batteries stored energy without losses) Essentially your 1 vanilla small reactor at 500kW would generate more power over the course of a day than the entire ISS solar system.

So the current vanilla solar panels are already highly advanced over 80% efficiency and assume your getting the same amount of sunlight as venus orbit.....

[Loues.S.Cat]

The output of solar panels is dependant on solar exposure.
This is effected by a lot of things such as distance from the solar panel to the sun, atmosphere content between the solar panel and sun, objects between the solar panel and sun.

In space ewngineers Distance from the sun has no effect on solar output because the sun has no position at all and therefore is always at a distance of 0 or NaN.
Atmospher has no apperent impact on solars, or if it does than this may be the sorce fo solar panels being broken.
Objects between the sun and solar for the most part are an all or nothing affair. They either block the panel, part of the panel or have no effect at all. Why this is the case can be seen as a result of the sun having no position, and nearby objects effectivly only existing if they are... nearby.

So in terms of a comparison to reality?
One factor doesn't exist.
One factor is ignored/broken.
And another factor is sort of there but only to an extest.

[Mojo]

*sigh* this again??? :) jk