Detectability of Solar Panels as a Technosignature

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the potential detectability of silicon-based solar panels on exoplanets as technosignatures using future space telescopes, highlighting the observational challenges and implications for extraterrestrial civilizations.

Contribution

It provides a quantitative assessment of detecting silicon solar panels on exoplanets, considering telescope capabilities and civilization energy use levels, linking technosignature detectability to civilization development.

Findings

Detectability requires hundreds of hours of observation with an 8m telescope.

Solar panels covering ~23% land area could be detectable at 10 parsecs.

Energy use of human civilization is far below thresholds for thermal detection or Kardashev Type I status.

Abstract

In this work, we assess the potential detectability of solar panels made of silicon on an Earth-like exoplanet as a potential technosignature. Silicon-based photovoltaic cells have high reflectance in the UV-VIS and in the near-IR, within the wavelength range of a space-based flagship mission concept like the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). Assuming that only solar energy is used to provide the 2022 human energy needs with a land cover of ~2.4%, and projecting the future energy demand assuming various growth-rate scenarios, we assess the detectability with an 8 m HWO-like telescope. Assuming the most favorable viewing orientation, and focusing on the strong absorption edge in the ultraviolet-to-visible (0.34 - 0.52 um), we find that several 100s of hours of observation time is needed to reach a SNR of 5 for an Earth-like planet around a Sun-like star at 10pc, even with a solar panel coverage of ~23% land coverage of a future Earth. We discuss the necessity of concepts like Kardeshev Type I/II civilizations and Dyson spheres, which would aim to harness vast amounts of energy. Even with much larger populations than today, the total energy use of human civilization would be orders of magnitude below the threshold for causing direct thermal heating or reaching the scale of a Kardashev Type I civilization. Any extraterrrestrial civilization that likewise achieves sustainable population levels may also find a limit on its need to expand, which suggests that a galaxy-spanning civilization as imagined in the Fermi paradox may not exist.