2 ms·
> it will reflect less heat back into space than the plant or bare dirt would, locally raising the temperature I'm not sure this checks out... the light gets a
by brundolf 6y ago
> it will reflect less heat back into space than the plant or bare dirt would, locally raising the temperature
I'm not sure this checks out... the light gets absorbed, but the energy doesn't get turned into heat, it gets turned into electricity. If anything, where it's covering up concrete or asphalt it should reduce the conversion of sunlight to local heat.
- Nullabillity 6y agoSome of it turns into electricity, some of it is wasted (turned into heat). And the whole point is that the electricity gets used at some point, turning into heat, computation (heat), light (heat), or motion (heat). And of course, you also have transmission losses (heat) along the way!
- kragen 6y agoA 21% efficient solar panel reflects about 9% of the light, turns about 60% of it into heat immediately, and turns the other 21% into heat shortly afterwards, perhaps somewhere else, when the power the solar cell generates is dissipated by, for example, an electric motor or lightbulb.
- sparker72678 6y agoResearch from 2016: https://phys.org/news/2016-11-solar-island-effect-large-scale-power.html https://phys.org/news/2016-11-solar-island-effect-large-scal... Tl;dr solar raises temps slightly in the vicinity of the panels.