I recall reading somewhere that solar power - already marginal at Jupiter - will cease to produce any power whatsoever at distances much further out than Saturn. Unfortunately I can not now find the source of that, so I'd like to explore it here.

As far as I understand the photoelectric effect (which is, I think, related to how PV cells work), the intensity of radiation does not affect whether an electron is released, only the wavelength of the light. It didn't make sense to me why this should be true, and now I can not find the original source.

So I'd like to ask if at some point far from the Sun, does the output of solar panels start dropping much faster than inverse square due to low light intensity?

If so, what would the shape of that drop off look like?

I recall reading somewhere that solar power - already marginal at Jupiter - will cease to produce any power whatsoever at distances much further out than Saturn. Unfortunately I can not now find the source of that, so I'd like to explore it here.

As far as I understand the photoelectric effect (which is, I think, related to how PV cells work), the intensity of radiation does not affect whether an electron is released, only the wavelength of the light. Because of this, it didn't make sense to me why photovoltaics might cease to produce light altogether at distances far from the sun.

So I'd like to ask, whether, at some point far from the Sun, the output of solar panels starts dropping much faster than the inverse square law suggests. If it does, is this due to a lack of light intensity, or some other effect?

As a bonus, what would the shape of that drop-off look like?

I recall reading that solar power - already marginal at Jupiter - will cease to produce any power whatsoever at distances much further out than Saturn.

As far as I understand the photoelectric effect (which is, I think, how PV cells work), the intensity of radiation does not affect whether an electron is released, only the wavelength of the light. Why, then, should solar panels stop working at very low light intensities, rather than continuing to forever decrease in power output?

I recall reading somewhere that solar power - already marginal at Jupiter - will cease to produce any power whatsoever at distances much further out than Saturn. Unfortunately I can not now find the source of that, so I'd like to explore it here.

As far as I understand the photoelectric effect (which is, I think, related to how PV cells work), the intensity of radiation does not affect whether an electron is released, only the wavelength of the light. It didn't make sense to me why this should be true, and now I can not find the original source.

So I'd like to ask if at some point far from the Sun, does the output of solar panels start dropping much faster than inverse square due to low light intensity?

If so, what would the shape of that drop off look like?