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I Did It

This is to set a mark in history that I thought of this first. October 8, 2018

While watching solar powered knick knacks in my home at night I saw they worked from just bulbs so here's the idea.
Clear countertops and tables that you slide panels into for energy reclamation. You are still getting the function of light while also saving the absorbed energy for later use.

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Faust76 · 46-50, M

Solar panels are getting better and easier to manufacture, but I'm sure it's still take more energy to produce solar panels for that purpose than could be reclaimed that way. The same panels outside would be much more effective. It does make me wonder if there are many surfaces that will get sunlight during days & artificial light during nights though. But solar panels efficiency is strongly affected by shadows, so that would pretty much prevent using the surface for anything else, even if it can be made sturdy enough.

SW-User

It's not a bad idea as far as it goes but it wouldn't be very efficient and the amount of usable energy you could actually save and store would be very small..
On a cost benefit basis you'd never recoup the cost of the panels and batteries..

Even the best solar panels are only about 22 percent efficient in direct sunlight..
Efficiency under incandescent light would be a small fraction of that...

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