Invisible schrieb:
> If you built a laptop where the entire lid was a solar panel, would it 
> generate anywhere near enough power to run the laptop?

At first glance I'd say, "might be".

If you ever took to the outside with a magnifiying glass and a piece of 
paper on a summer day, you probably know how much power there is in 
sunlight, when concentrated. So as a first rought guesstimate, imagine a 
magnifying glass the size of a laptop lid, concentrating solar energy on 
something as big as a CPU die.

If that would produce as much heat as a running CPU, then we're at least 
talking about the same orders of magnitude.

Upon closer inspection of the problem, this article: 
http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/energy-efficiency/question418.htm 
states that with cheapo solar cells, you can harvest no more than about 
.045 W per square inch; the article then goes on presuming a figure of 
.070 W, probably assuming the use of higher-quality cells.

With a laptop about as large as an A4 sheet of paper - about 100 square 
inch - that would give you... 7 Watts. Not /quite/ the order of 
magnitude you'd probably need...

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