# If I put a Fresnel Lens in front of my solar panels

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-put-a-fresnel-lens-in-front-of-my-solar-panels/1026984>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 24, 2026, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-put-a-fresnel-lens-in-front-of-my-solar-panels/1026984 "2026-01-24T16:24:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 9

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**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2026, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-put-a-fresnel-lens-in-front-of-my-solar-panels/1026984/9 "2026-01-24T18:21:22Z")

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Also, this isn’t the first time this has been discussed here.

> [@Why not put smaller solar panels beneath much larger lenses?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-put-smaller-solar-panels-beneath-much-larger-lenses/745028):
>
> This idea seems kind of obvious, so I’m sure there’s a reason solar panels aren’t build like this, but the idea is… Instead of building a solar panel of some given size (let’s say one square meter), why not build a much smaller solar panel, but place it beneath a 1 square meter lens, that concentrates one square meter’s worth of solar energy on to the smaller solar panel? Would you still generate a comparable amount of energy this way? And if so, wouldn’t these types of solar installations be…

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