Solar Reflectors?

Following --- wonder....

OutbackAZ said:

I believe this is how the Pod People receive communications from their Mother Ship.

Would that be the R Pod people?

However, there is an uncanny similarity . . .

They are already on the Mother Ship! 
Seriously, what possible purpose is there for putting tinfoil in front of a solar panel?
reflected sun is directed up and away?

Back when I was working at a middle school, we participated in yearly Junior Solar Sprint competitions. Each team had the same solar panel and the same small electric motor, but everything else was up to the kids (and their coach) to design. We found that being able to tilt the solar panel --as opposed to being just flat on top of the model car-- did help, but the benefit wasn't worth the weight and complexity.

Bottom line, yes, it can help, but generally not worth the effort/expense. One other thing to keep in mind is the drop-off in efficiency as the solar panel gets hotter.

And yes, we did walk away with a large trophy on several occasions, covering 20 meters in less than 6 seconds from a dead start.

I think I once read something about a magnifier helping solar. 

Like a giant Fresnel lens?

http://www.solarnovus.com/mirrors-vs-fresnel-lenses-for-concentrating-solar-power_N7202.html

Here's a video of a test a guy did: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5uGex_wGa7s

Very good video, nicely done.

Think I was having a senior moment… yes, I know tilting does work.

In our case(s), however, we all competed at the same time, late spring and early summer, so we didn't have such a low solar angle. Our competitions also took place late AM through noon to maximize what solar energy we did get, so the benefit from tilting wouldn't have been so pronounced.

Since our main goal was acceleration, weight became a major issue. Also, sometimes the track surface was a bit rough, so any mechanical complexities would quickly show up as "things that break." We therefore abandoned tilting, but I see now that was a lot different than the situations campers face.

I'm still new to camping with solar-- a completely different league than the little 12" panels we worked with! I still think, however, I'd stay away from reflectors. Thanks for the very informative video!

As a point of interest, here's a couple photos of one of our fastest cars ever. Covered the 20 meters in 5.5 seconds, designed and built by a team of 8th grade girls back in 1996. 

Mr_Mrs_Gnome said:

Would probably be tough to experiment with and without a reflector, given that no two days are exactly the same. I would think that if you are adding light to the panel, you would increase the output. It would depend on also having the reflector at the correct angles to reflect light onto the cells, not just randomly into the air. It would be like the heliostats (mirrors) pointing light onto the solar towers at the Ivanpah Solar Facility near the CA-NV border on I-15.

I think to really have a good grasp of there performance differentiators would be to use one of those meters designed to get a reading on solar panel performance.