I seem to recall from one of my books ("direct use of the sun's energy", farrington daniels) that the theoretical max energy from sun on earth's surface (noon, equator) was close to 746 watts/sq meter.

alistair

On 2012-05-18, at 7:07 PM, David Beierl wrote:

> At 05:32 PM 5/18/2012, Tobias Gogolin wrote:
>> one could devise some Solar panels on a vanagon that would complete a Horse
>> worth of power even without any battery or diesel backup generator!
> 
> These people will sell you 250 6x6-inch cells to make up a panel with
> a claimed max output of one kilowatt, which is 1-1/3 hp.  They could
> make up into a panel a little bigger than 5x12 feet, so you ought to
> be able to put that on a Vanagon roof with perhaps a bit of overhang.
> 
> But don't forget that a fully loaded Vanagon (5269 lb gross) with 1
> hp at the wheels and neglecting all forms of drag and resistance and
> never using the brakes will (starting from rest) take a minimum of
> ten seconds for every foot of net altitude gained between starting
> point and destination.  And it will take you an hour and forty
> minutes minimum to climb a 600 foot hill starting from rest.  You
> might want to ease into this by driving one of the stock diesels for
> a while. ;-)
> 
> Yours,
> David