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And even if it can, I am reasonably confident (from my arm chair here) that this combination of relying on a narrow band of passive IR emissions to drive a heat engine will be less effective than a photovoltaic cell generating electricity directly from incoming visible radiation across a relatively broad frequency band.



Ah, but only one of those still operates in the dark.


50C is not much for heat engines your limited to under 15% effecency in the best theoretical case. So solar + battery is going to be a net win unless your thinking of flipping panels at night for ~1% more power over pure solar panels which is silly from a cost perspective.


I thought solar was widely favored long term, but it's going to be a long time before it establishes that position.




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