2 Square Meters of Sunlight, When Focused, Can Melt a Rock


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Bang Goes the Theory is a popular science show on BBC One. In this clip, host Jem Stansfield visited the Solar Furnace Research Facility in France and witnessed how much power can be generated from 2 square meters of sunlight when it's all focused on one small spot.

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@NorwegianBlue
Jollyboy does make a good point about storage, but it's not "stealing energy" that otherwise would have been reflected, absorbed by the ground, or a roof, and dissipated.

That energy that is extracted is such a miniscule proportion of all the light falling in a particular area, even one scattered with solar panels, that I would be surprised if it in any way affected the weather or ecosystem. The weather is a powerful force and it would take more than solar panels to significantly affect it.

I saw a talk by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki on whether renewable energy could be used to power Australia/the world, who is qualified to talk about this issue, and he did not even raise "stealing energy" as a concern for the ecosystem.
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