Ever wonder if you could power your home at night using moonlight? You might have heard people talk about lunar panels as a way to keep making energy when the sun goes down. Let's take a look at what these are and if they're worth thinking about for your home.
Lunar panels aren't something you can buy yet. They're an idea for panels that would catch moonlight to make electricity at night. Here's the thing many people don't think about: moonlight isn't its own kind of light – it's just sunlight bouncing off the moon. The moon doesn't make any light itself, it just reflects about 12% of the sun's light back to Earth.
The moon's surface is actually surprisingly dark – it reflects only 12% of the sunlight that hits it – similar to worn asphalt – despite appearing bright in our night sky.
This creates a big problem for making energy from moonlight. By the time sunlight bounces off the moon and reaches your roof, it's much, much weaker. While it sounds cool to make power day and night, companies don't sell real lunar panels because they wouldn't produce enough electricity to be worth the money you'd spend on them.
The difference between sunlight and moonlight is huge. Full moonlight is about 300,000 times weaker than direct sunlight. That's not a typo – 300,000 times!
The moon might look bright on a clear night, but that's just because our eyes adjust to the dark. When your pupils get bigger at night, the moon seems to glow brightly. But this trick your eyes play doesn't mean there's a lot of energy to catch.
This matters because solar panels need a certain amount of light before they can make decent electricity. When the light is too weak, trying to make power becomes like trying to fill your bathtub with a single drop of water at a time.
Solar panels actually operate more efficiently at cooler temperatures, which means they would theoretically perform better during chilly nights than hot days – if only there were enough light.
Let's put this in real terms: A good solar panel that makes 450 watts in bright sunshine might make only a few watts under the brightest full moon. That's barely enough to power a single small LED bulb.
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There's another practical problem too. Many inverters shut themselves off at night because they're smart enough to know they'd use more power running themselves than they'd make from the weak moonlight. That's why your solar panels don't work at night – the system knows it's better to go to sleep until morning when the sun comes back out.
While the idea of lunar panels sounds amazing, understanding these basic facts can save you from getting excited about technology that won't actually help power your home. For now, if you want power at night from your solar setup, battery storage is the way to go – not lunar panels.
The typical 400W solar panel receiving moonlight produces roughly the same amount of power as a dying watch battery – barely enough to light a single LED.
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Years of experience in translation and a love of nature help Julia find the right words to encourage going solar. She joined the team in 2023 and is happy to make her contribution to a greener future.
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