"Ken Heaton" wrote in
news:xh05e.4996$VF5.1702@edtnps89:

Will this 500 watt panel array ever actually put out 500watts?

Another interesting point is that a solar cell is very poor efficiency.
Here's a report on a new Sanyo HIT cell hitting 21.3%....

"The resulting efficiency level exceeds 21.3 percent, which until now, was
the highest level delivered by SANYO HIT solar cells. The HIT solar cell is
10cm square, nearly the same size as solar cells currently used for home
and industrial applications."

Regular silicon solar cells are like 6% efficient!

Even if we get this supercell technology, to get 500 watts out, we're going
to have to put 2500 watts of sunshine in and cool the cells of 2000 watts
of heat! Will that be fresh water or seawater cooling??...(c; Maybe we
can use the heat to cook lunch on the metal heat sinks...saving the drain
from the microwave oven!

Wonder why we can't run a little water pump in the loop to the water
heater? The waste heat from the solar charging could give us all HOT
SHOWERS AND DISHWATER!

The big panel on Lionheart puts out 5A on its best day and only if the boom
is out wide and not shading anything on top of the cockpit hardtop it
covers....