solar supplies for the UK

Hero999 said:

I thought 5% was good for a solar panel.

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That's bad
When I was busy with solar panels some years ago the efficiency was around 10 to 12% for cristaline cells and around 8 to 9% for thin film cells.

the 80% is 80% of standard solar panels

That is what they meant. They are 80% efficent as compared to todays solar panels.
The sun beats out thousands of watts of power per meter (I think around 2000 watts it was), so to capture 5% of it that would be 100 watts. 10% is 200watts. 80% is 1600 wattts. Thats alot of POWER!!!

NOTE: The wattage would be for a meter squared solar panel, so one meter by one meter to get these wattages.

Krumlink said:

That is what they meant. They are 80% efficent as compared to todays solar panels.

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So you mean only 4%? (assuming todays panels are 5%).

Certainly nowhere near 80% of the light energy they receive!

Yeah, I hope you know what 80% of 5% is

Krumlink said:

... ...The sun beats out thousands of watts of power per meter (I think around 2000 watts it was), ... ...

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One can find a lot of numbers on the net and in literature about "sunpower" ...

Fronius manual said:

The energy from worldwide insolation amounts to a total of about 1.540.000.000.000.000.000 kWh/year (1.540 Peta kWh/year

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Since insolation is different for all locations on the planet, the nominal power of a solar panel is given for a 1000W/m² insolation perpendicular to the panel.
That sunpower you will get on the equator at noon