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I've had the same thought about solar. The area under the panel used to get sunlight, and if nothing else, warmed up. Not that it's necessarily bad, but wides
by DougN7 9y ago
I've had the same thought about solar. The area under the panel used to get sunlight, and if nothing else, warmed up.
Not that it's necessarily bad, but widespread usage would have to have _some_ environmental impact.
- cirgue 9y agoThe same thing can be said of agriculture, and there are definitely environmental impacts, but we generally don't worry about the ground cover aspect.
- DougN7 9y agoThat is a really great point I had never thought of. Thank you.
- photojosh 9y agoNow the panel warms up instead of the area underneath. What's the difference?
- dreamcompiler 9y agoA small fraction gets turned into electricity. Which ultimately gets turned into...heat. So the net amount of heat reaching earth doesn't change.
- adrianN 9y agoUnless you build solar panels on top of a very low albedo ground, the amount of heat actually increases because less is reflected back to space.
- DougN7 9y agoThe final heat would most likely be produced in a different location. It would take a very large scale installation to have an impact. I guess I'm thinking of weather patterns when you see those images that say "if we covered 1/4 of Arizona in solar panels we could power the world!". More of a thought experiment than anything I guess.