One sentence that should have been elaborate on a bit more to mirror/complete the article’s approach: “For a sense of scale, a solar panel gets around ten thousand times this, or 100 Watts per square meter.”
Solar power has the same problem of terminal optimism as the proposed raindrop energy harvesting: in short, the source 1300W/m^2, all factors considered, becomes a real world 13W/m^2. Better than raindrops falling on my head, but still way less than most people comprehend.
Math. Once you account for night, impingement angle, weather, atmospheric absorption, panel efficiency, dirt, seasons, storage efficiency, etc it averages out around 13W/m^2 long term.
Experience. I run my “office” all summer on solar. 1m^2 panel gives 70W max; usable light about 8 hours, average over a day is 23W. Halve that for winter, overcast, etc.
Gotcha. That still seems a bit low for where I live, assuming 18% efficient panels. Roughly 5kW.hr/m^2 averaged over the year, so 5000/24*0.18 = 37.5 W/m^2.
And of course solar thermal in the desert can do quite a bit better than that.
Solar power has the same problem of terminal optimism as the proposed raindrop energy harvesting: in short, the source 1300W/m^2, all factors considered, becomes a real world 13W/m^2. Better than raindrops falling on my head, but still way less than most people comprehend.