Wattage adder
A wattage adder would be an electronic circuit that can combine power from multiple sources, including ones that are intermittent & unreliable. Each source might also have a different voltage & current rating.
Potential applications
- Robust solar panels: If one cell fails
(...)( such as due to age; or due to manufacturing defects. The latter is especially important: If we want solar to be widespread enough to replace fossil fuels, then factories have to produce an extraordinary amount of solar panels. They would have to be made quite cheaply - even in a non-capitalist world, they would still have to be "cheap" in terms of energy & labor per panel. ) , this won't affect the performance of any other cells. - Building ebikes from used vape batteries, which may vary in size and chemistry. Safety warning:
(...)( This wiki doesn't yet have enough info to say whether this idea would be safe. More research is needed. )
Research needed
This page needs more research:
- Do wattage adder circuits exist yet? Do they maybe go by a different name?
- I would assume that such a circuit must involve a lot of power transistors such as MOSFETs. Would the cost
(...)( beyond money, consider the amount of rare metals, energy and labor involved in production ) be reasonable enough for this to be scaleable for green energy solutions?