Was pondering the question of whether integrating solar panels on the upper part of a Mavic's body would make sense for some future version of the Mavic. Here's what I got with my quick "back-of-the-envelope" calculations:
Given the small area of the Mavic's upper surface and browsing the info on Amazon.com for small solar panels, it appears that the amount of solar power that could be generated by solar panels small enough to fit on the Mavic's upper surface would be less than 10 Watts. The Mavic uses a 44 Watt-hour battery, and has a flight time of about 20 minutes or 1/3 of an hour before the battery is mostly drained, so that means that the power drain of the Mavic when in flight is about 132 Watts (=44 Watt-hours / (1/3 of an hour)). Actually, the battery is not completely drained after a normal 20 minute flight since we always want to have a little battery reserve for emergencies, so the power drain is probably a bit less than 132 Watts. Let's call it around 100 Watts, which is a nice round number. So obviously a 10 Watt solar panel isn't going to be able to keep a Mavic in flight indefinitely. At best, a 10 Watt solar panel will generate about 3 Watt-hours of energy in a 20 minute long Mavic flight, which won't go far in recharging a rapidly draining 44 Watt-hour battery. A solar panel may give only an additional minute or two of flight time, so it doesn't seem that solar panels would be worthwhile for that given the trouble and expense of installing them into a Mavic.
However, solar panels could be useful for emergency landing situations and long round-trip flights. Suppose a Mavic has to make an emergency landing because of strong winds blowing it off-course and the battery dropping below 10%. As things stand now, if a Mavic has to land with that little battery power left, it's not going anywhere. You have to go out and retrieve it yourself, even if it made a landing in a difficult to reach location such as the middle of a muddy field. With a "Solar Mavic", however, the Mavic's battery would be fully recharged in about 4 hours of direct sunlight, or charged to about 35% capacity in just one hour (=10% + 25% recharge), which would be enough for it to take off for a short flight.
Another use for a "Solar Mavic" would be for a long flight such as, for example, to take pictures of an island located far at near the Mavic's maximum range. As things stand now, we have to plan our flights so that we have enough battery power for a full round-trip flight to the island and back. However, with a "Solar Mavic", one could fly out to the island with the battery almost fully drained, then land on the island and let the battery fully recharge in the sun, and then make the return trip flight with a fully charged battery.
Just some ideas. Of course, the best option of all would be for solar cell technology to advance to the level that one could fly a Mavic indefinitely in strong sunlight, but I think that we'll have to wait a long time for that.
Given the small area of the Mavic's upper surface and browsing the info on Amazon.com for small solar panels, it appears that the amount of solar power that could be generated by solar panels small enough to fit on the Mavic's upper surface would be less than 10 Watts. The Mavic uses a 44 Watt-hour battery, and has a flight time of about 20 minutes or 1/3 of an hour before the battery is mostly drained, so that means that the power drain of the Mavic when in flight is about 132 Watts (=44 Watt-hours / (1/3 of an hour)). Actually, the battery is not completely drained after a normal 20 minute flight since we always want to have a little battery reserve for emergencies, so the power drain is probably a bit less than 132 Watts. Let's call it around 100 Watts, which is a nice round number. So obviously a 10 Watt solar panel isn't going to be able to keep a Mavic in flight indefinitely. At best, a 10 Watt solar panel will generate about 3 Watt-hours of energy in a 20 minute long Mavic flight, which won't go far in recharging a rapidly draining 44 Watt-hour battery. A solar panel may give only an additional minute or two of flight time, so it doesn't seem that solar panels would be worthwhile for that given the trouble and expense of installing them into a Mavic.
However, solar panels could be useful for emergency landing situations and long round-trip flights. Suppose a Mavic has to make an emergency landing because of strong winds blowing it off-course and the battery dropping below 10%. As things stand now, if a Mavic has to land with that little battery power left, it's not going anywhere. You have to go out and retrieve it yourself, even if it made a landing in a difficult to reach location such as the middle of a muddy field. With a "Solar Mavic", however, the Mavic's battery would be fully recharged in about 4 hours of direct sunlight, or charged to about 35% capacity in just one hour (=10% + 25% recharge), which would be enough for it to take off for a short flight.
Another use for a "Solar Mavic" would be for a long flight such as, for example, to take pictures of an island located far at near the Mavic's maximum range. As things stand now, we have to plan our flights so that we have enough battery power for a full round-trip flight to the island and back. However, with a "Solar Mavic", one could fly out to the island with the battery almost fully drained, then land on the island and let the battery fully recharge in the sun, and then make the return trip flight with a fully charged battery.
Just some ideas. Of course, the best option of all would be for solar cell technology to advance to the level that one could fly a Mavic indefinitely in strong sunlight, but I think that we'll have to wait a long time for that.
