How Do You Build Solar Panels Into A Satellite Dish To Make A Solar Power Concentrator?
A satellite dish is designed with a parabolic curve to it’s surface to reflect energy back to a focal point, increasing the signal strength. This same concept can be used to reflect solar power back to a solar panel, generating more current with the same number of solar cells. If we use a satellite dish that has a diameter of 9 feet or an area of 6362 square inches and an 81 square inch or 9″ x 9″ solar panel, this is a concentration factor of 77.5 times the energy. How to build photovoltaic cells that can absorb this increased solar energy requires both thermal control and heavy duty conductors to reduce the panel temperature and the power losses. The solar cells are only about 15% efficient so there is a lot of heat to control and if the cells produce 0.5 amps nominally then at 77.5 times they will generate close to 40 amps per cell. 14 volts times 40 amps equals 560 watts. We plan on attaching either a heat sink or a water cooled radiator on the back of the panel. We have a couple o
