Solar panels cause heat island effect

Heat Island Caused By Solar Panels....


Even large fields of solar panels contribute to climate change by causing a heat island effect.

The best commercial solar panels in use now convert 15% of the sun's rays to electric power. The other 85% of that solar energy ends up being turned into heat. This is totally obvious because you can see that solar panels are dark black colored. That means they are absorbing all that light. Black colored things usually get very warm or hot when left outside on a sunny day.


Well, I guess it's back to directed mirrors and concentrated solar power then - the type that fries birds out of the sky.

 

I only see this being a problem if a significant portion of the planet is ... solar panels which seems highly unlikely. Like I doubt astronauts are ever gonna be seeing massive solar farms from space any time soon. You also need to present some research that shows the heating from the heat island effect from these solar panels is greater than the CO2 emissions saved by using solar panels.

 

According to the US EPA (now run by the Left-leaning Democrats), "Efforts to reduce heat islands can help mitigate climate change."
Climate Change and Heat Islands | US EPA

Who knows, this could be total BS, but if the EPA says it, most of those on the progressive Left will accept it as true without question.

 

You failed to show that solar panels are contributing to the heat island effect in any significant way. Like how much are solar panels warming the planet? Do you even have any idea what that number is?

 

It also raises the question of whether putting solar panels on the top of buildings to power air conditioning is really a good idea. Sure, it might make sense for one individual building, but if all the buildings in a surrounding city do the same thing, the heat island effect might start counteracting the effect of generation of power for air conditioning.

Might be more efficient (and cheaper) to paint all of the roofs white.

Yet another example of something that is called "The Fallacy of Composition" (what is true for individual parts does not always hold true for the collection of those parts which make up the whole)

 

Weird looking dude and despite his claims this is not news as there is research from 2016 affirming this

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep35070

The issue appears to be lack of surrounding vegetation and even the author of the paper he is citing is suggesting we grow vegetation under the panels to mitigate the effect

https://enst.umd.edu/news/dr-pavao-...-effect-caused-large-scale-solar-power-plants
And this is a LOCAL effect

 

Vegetation requires WATER, and vegetation only reduces temperature increases because there is water evaporating from that vegetation.
And that water may not be available in the deserts where these large solar panel fields are installed.

 

My roof is galvalume. I installed it myself. But painting a roof white only makes sense in warm climates. I do like solutions that are passive. Like brick for southern exposure in cool climates to absorb heat and solar heating with sun rooms. P

 

Well over 20% now... If you can't even get that basic fact right you're probably not worth taking to, however for those that are interested:

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/ar...arms-yields-major-land-productivity-increase/

https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2022/06...heep-and-solar-energy-production-can-coexist/

 

There is a book titled,

The Hawkweed passive solar house book LINK

I have a copy of the book which was published in 1980 but still relevant today worth reading for those who wants a simpler cheaper way to live.

 

Yes, solar power does make much more sense if you're trying to use the sun's energy directly for heat.

Unfortunately, a lot of the colder climates where large human populations live have very cloudy skies during the winter, which can limit the usefulness of solar heating.

It will make much more sense for some climates than others. Typically more continental climate areas father away from the ocean. The idea of solar power heating is very popular in Montana, for example, which doesn't have cloudy winter skies. Usually the home has to be architecturally designed to be able to best make use of this, with big windows facing towards the south.