XPost: sci.space.policy, sci.physics   
   From: alain245@videotron.ca   
      
   Le Oct/17/2016 à 1:28 AM, jimp@specsol.spam.sux.com a écrit :   
   > In sci.physics Alain Fournier  wrote:   
   >   
   >    
   >   
   >> You don't need lots of water and a clean room to make solar panels. You   
   >> need those to make high performance solar panel. If you manufacture your   
   >> own panels on Mars, you would probably go for easy to do low efficiency   
   >> panels at first. On Earth, people are willing to pay a little more in   
   >> order to have 10 m^2 of panels instead of 500 m^2 of panels. But on   
   >> Mars, the neighbours are far away and you can use lots of surface area.   
   >>   
   >> Alain Fournier   
   >   
   > As high efficiency solar panel on Mars would only deliver a daily average   
   > of about 40 W/m^2, low efficieny panels means a LOT of panels.   
   >   
   > Making solar panel silicon is very energy intensive, so how do you   
   > bootstrap a solar panel plant other than with a reactor or shipping   
   > huge amounts of panels, mounting hardware, and cement for the posts?   
      
   Low efficiency solar panels don't need "solar panel silicon". I saw a   
   guy who was making solar panels in his basement. He had some kind of   
   paste he made and he would basically paint his paste on, if I recall   
   correctly, sheets of copper, then put a wire on the copper side and   
   another wire on his pained side. That's all, it worked, not very   
   efficiently but it worked. His panels had only about 30% the efficiency   
   of commercial panels, but they were cheap.   
      
      
   Alain Fournier   
      
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