reflective material and solar panels
Last Post 21 Nov 2017 05:13 AM by JenniferK. 9 Replies.
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thoner7User is Offline
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30 Oct 2017 08:45 PM
recently i put some foil faced polyiso on a roof...and got sun burned on a not so sunny day, due to the reflection. It got me thinking about increasing the productivity of solar panels in a similar fashion, by putting up some highly reflective metal panels at say, a 90 degree angle to the panels. I assume people have thought of this before, has anyone tried it with any luck?
GreatGreenGuyUser is Offline
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31 Oct 2017 02:25 AM
Posted By thoner7 on 30 Oct 2017 08:45 PM
recently i put some foil faced polyiso on a roof...and got sun burned on a not so sunny day, due to the reflection. It got me thinking  about increasing the productivity of solar panels in a similar fashion, by putting up some eco friendly highly reflective metal panels at say, a 90 degree angle to the panels. I assume people have thought of this before, has anyone tried it with any luck?

That's actually a super interesting idea. I had this concept but for growing veggies. There's always one side that gets mostly shade and figured to put some kind of reflective material to bounce the light off and onto the shade areas. Something not as reflective as metal though so it wouldn't burn the plants.

I think for the later or earlier hours of the day it could work really well to top off the power as the solar panels aren't necessarily set in that direction.
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31 Oct 2017 03:02 PM
Concentrating photovoltaic (PV) panels are commercially available, but are carefully engineered to have adequate cooling. PV efficiency drops off with increased temperature, and there are temperature limits over which a standard PV panel should not be subjected. Using reflectors to increase solar intensity could do more harm than good.

Most concentrating PV panel companies have not been commercially competitive against commodity PV panels since PV cell costs have fallen by 80% over the past decade and are continuing to fall.

Using reflectors that only increase the light to the panels when they would otherwise be shaded or the solar angle would be very oblique might be worthwhile to pursue given specific site factors.
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31 Oct 2017 03:02 PM
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thoner7User is Offline
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31 Oct 2017 09:31 PM
Dana, good to know. I did not know of the heat issue.

Would using reflectors only during the winter, when air temps are cooler, and the sun isn't as strong, be OK? I'm in NY.
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01 Nov 2017 05:31 AM
On flat panels, a reflective under-surface isn't going to help much. It'll just heat the panel up, lowering its efficiency.

On solar thermal (for hot water), you'd probably see a performance bump unless the panel setup already came with a concave reflector.

Solyndra used to make tube-based solar PV that'd benefit from something like this. But they've been out of business for years.

Concentrating solar PV mostly does what you're thinking about already. But, for home applications, it simply isn't price competitive with standard PV, and most require sun-tracking to maintain their efficiency.
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12 Nov 2017 06:06 PM
You can put reflective panels adjacent to a solar panel to increase output (eg, a horizontal reflector below a 45 degree panel). Apparently almost nobody finds it practical.
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13 Nov 2017 08:07 AM
Mostly because, while it reflects some light, it also reflects HEAT, driving down the efficiency of the panel.  And the loss to overheating exceeds the gains from the solar concentration.
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14 Nov 2017 04:40 AM
People who have measured it have found an increase in power output.
JenniferKUser is Offline
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21 Nov 2017 05:13 AM
Yes the reflective panel can help in increasing the power output.
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