Efficiencies of Various Methods for Solar Energy Conversion,

Abstract

Three methods are examined for converting solar energy to electricity or shaft work: heat engines, thermal decomposition of water to produce hydrogen and solar cells. Maximum efficiencies of conversion are found to lie between 20% and 50%. For most applications, the heat engine is superior to the water splitting process. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 20, 1977
Accession Number
ADA042584

Entities

People

  • W. G. Soper

Organizations

  • Office of Naval Research

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Cells
  • Conversion
  • Decomposition
  • Efficiency
  • Electric Motors
  • Electricity
  • Electromagnetic Radiation
  • Energy
  • Energy Conversion
  • Energy Storage
  • Engines
  • Heat Energy
  • Heat Engines
  • Radiation
  • Solar Cells
  • Solar Energy
  • Solar Radiation

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy Engineering.
  • Finite Element Method (FEM) for solving Partial Differential Equations (PDEs)