Question About Mass Solar Use

Heat is a great example. Would massive pockets of increased surface heat have much impact? It seems like changing how sunlight strikes vast areas of surface could have consequences.
Would a solar panel absorb more heat than a shingled roof?

That's a good question. It sounds like one of our resident engineers said that solar panels might actually reduce heat in the conversion into electricity. Not only does the left want to put panels on every building, they would probably have to set up huge solar farms as well. Again, none of this is currently possible, and someone pointed out the cloud cover at our latitude is not even a good place to try this stuff. Still, what happens when you use vast amounts of solar energy to power the entire planet? The asphalt example was perfect. Cities are a certain amount of degrees warmer than their surroundings. Now image a project that would cover much more surface area than asphalt. If it has a cooling effect, would this affect weather patterns? Whether cooling or warming, the question would be how much of an effect would be created? Just curious.

You'd have to know how much of a heat sink a solar panel actually is

Roads and buildings have a lot of mass and can absorb a large amount of heat during the day and then radiate that heat back over many hours after the sun goes down.

My limited experience with solar panels is that they cool pretty quickly when the sun goes down
 
Heat is a great example. Would massive pockets of increased surface heat have much impact? It seems like changing how sunlight strikes vast areas of surface could have consequences.

If the solar panels were blocking sunlight from plants, it could have an effect.

However, most plans I have seen call for covering parking lots and urban buildings with solar cells. That does not do anything to the environment.
 

Forum List

Back
Top