Efficiency Of Plants Vs Solar Panels

Natural gas fired power plants.

Efficiency of plants vs solar panels.

Factors that affect solar panel efficiency. Determining the relative efficiency of photosynthesis and photovoltaics is not a simple problem by david biello on may 12 2011. Most commercially available solar panels have more than 10 times this efficiency. Photosynthesis is less efficient than solar panels.

Coal plants achieve from 33 to 40 efficiency in the best cases with the rest being just wasted heat. Both solar cells and plants process sunlight one way or the other but there s a catch. Combined cycle gas plants where the heat is used in addition to the mechanical energy to generate electricity manage to make it up to about 54 efficiency. The highest efficiency solar panels on the market today can reach almost 23 percent efficiency.

Super critical power plants operating at 220 bar and 600 600 c can achieve efficiencies of 42. Guided by common sense we d say that the plants billions of years of experience in capturing and storing energy will win. In terms of reliable application coal and natural gas have the edge. One of them is more efficient.

The efficiencies of these plants range from 35 to 38. Monocrystalline panel efficiencies can range from 17 to 22. The average efficiency of solar panels falls between the 17 to 19 percent efficiency range. Ultra super critical pressure power plants at 300 bar and 600 600 c can achieve efficiencies in the range of 45 to 48 efficiency.

According to the wikipedia page on photosynthetic efficiency typical plants have a radiant energy to chemical energy conversion efficiency between 0 1 and 2. Photosynthesis can be described by the simplified chemical reaction 6 h 2 o 6 co 2 energy c 6 h 12 o 6 6 o 2. Solar panels have been consistently increasing in efficiency at about 5 annually since 2010. The ultimate way to compare solar energy to fossil fuels is by cost where solar has quickly caught up with its non renewable counterparts.

The photosynthetic efficiency is the fraction of light energy converted into chemical energy during photosynthesis in green plants and algae. Which are better to capture solar energy. Because monocrystalline solar cells are made out of a single crystal of silicon electrons are able to flow easier through the cell which makes the pv cell.