Droughts and Solar Panels

[Dusty Britches]

I had a thought provoking discussion this past week about solar panels and drought. The discussion was, well, let's say outside the box. The key question is, if solar panels can get so hot they can disintegrate a bird, how much moisture do the panels remove from the air? I just read that newer solar panels actually take moisture from the air and condense it into water to cool the panels.

Solar panels are in high use in California. Nearly every house we saw last year in that state had them. California's droughts had gotten increasingly worse. Granted, this may be attributed to the water use. But it also seems the more solar panels they use the worse the droughts get.

This lends a little credence to the theory, the increased use of solar panels is making droughts worse and preventing Pacific ocean moisture from coming into and past California. It doesn't rain much on the majority of the west coast, but typically when the Pacific moisture hits the western mountains, it starts raining.

Of course, I'm not a weather scientist or even guru but shouldn't this theory be researched?

[Drycreek3189]

That would be the ultimate irony, that the “save the whales” types were actually destroying the environment. Food for thought.

[cricman]

"Their idea was that during the day, the gel would pull heat from the solar panel to evaporate water it had pulled out of the air the previous night, releasing the vapor through the bottom of the gel. The evaporating water would cool the solar panel as sweat evaporating from the skin cools us down."

Essentially a system with almost zero loss; atmospheric water vapor passively condensed and then evaporated back into the atmosphere. California's water problems are historical, political, and even just a little environmental. Definitely not a solar gel problem, which is new enough to not be used in most residential solar arrays.

I would rather blame it on large scale bit-coin mining, which requires mega-watts of electricity and cooling water!


cricman

[91cavgt]

You are talking about 2 different systems.


The large solar collectors in California that can incinerate a bird work completely different than the solar panels mounted on the roof of a house. The panels on the large solar farms in California are actually just mirrors. They reflect and aim the heat on to a tower. This tower uses sodium or another material to convert the heat energy into steam to power an electric turbine generator.

The panels on a roof top directly convert the light energy into electricity. These panels do heat up but nothing like what the mirrors do in California. These panels are also mounted with a small air gap under them to help keep them cooler.

[Kelmat]

If they remove moisture from the air they'll be a big hit on the Gulf Coast!

[CamoQuest]

Oh good! A great question for Tony!!!

[Duckologist]

I had a thought provoking discussion this past week about solar panels and drought. The discussion was, well, let's say outside the box. The key question is, if solar panels can get so hot they can disintegrate a bird, how much moisture do the panels remove from the air? I just read that newer solar panels actually take moisture from the air and condense it into water to cool the panels.

Solar panels are in high use in California. Nearly every house we saw last year in that state had them. California's droughts had gotten increasingly worse. Granted, this may be attributed to the water use. But it also seems the more solar panels they use the worse the droughts get.

This lends a little credence to the theory, the increased use of solar panels is making droughts worse and preventing Pacific ocean moisture from coming into and past California. It doesn't rain much on the majority of the west coast, but typically when the Pacific moisture hits the western mountains, it starts raining.

Of course, I'm not a weather scientist or even guru but shouldn't this theory be researched?

I nominate Dusty to research this theory all in favor say eye or I or aye

[waffles]

We are fixing to find out in Milam county, they way it looks we might get a few real big solar farms

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[Aggies12]

You are talking about 2 different systems.


The large solar collectors in California that can incinerate a bird work completely different than the solar panels mounted on the roof of a house. The panels on the large solar farms in California are actually just mirrors. They reflect and aim the heat on to a tower. This tower uses sodium or another material to convert the heat energy into steam to power an electric turbine generator.

The panels on a roof top directly convert the light energy into electricity. These panels do heat up but nothing like what the mirrors do in California. These panels are also mounted with a small air gap under them to help keep them cooler.

What he said.

[bobc]

We are fixing to find out in Milam county, they way it looks we might get a few real big solar farms

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I saw the other day a bunch of signs indicating that they are putting one in Belfalls as well.