• faintwhenfree@lemmus.org
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    6 days ago

    Solar is heat sensitive? I mean yes it operates at sub optimal conditions, but it still operates also during summer solar energy per m2 is higher due to more optimal earth tilt than during winter months.

    So solar panel operating at 15% of 100W absorbed produces 15W in summer. Same panel in winter operating at 20% capacity of 80W in winter makes 16W. Yes summer is lower output, but by not that much. And if it’s not heatwave conditions it’s even better.

    Anyway back to the main point, there solar panels operating at 48 degrees right now that I just visited this month.

    • Chaf@slrpnk.net
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      6 days ago

      Completely agree, saying that solar is heat sensitive when talking about not being able to power ACs is pretty far out there.

      Adding to what you said, ambient temperature only has a slight impact on solar’s efficiency. Solar’s efficiency usually mainly goes down due to self-heating which is due to higher irradiance. So in some sense they are less efficient because they generate more power.

      However your example numbers are way off, solar panels generate much more peak power during summer than during winter, they aren’t close to being similar (depending on lattitude, but I guess that’s a given when talking about “summer” and “winter”).

      Image [1]

      And the other part that should not be overlooked is that there tends to be some correlation between hot weather and long sunshine, which can also be seen in the plot. So not only is peak power of solar higher during the time when heatwaves are more likely, they also generate power longer.


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