Posted on 06/23/2017 1:16:44 PM PDT by Kaslin
RUSH: I saw this, it just brought a smile to my face. “Solar Power Stops Working Well When it’s Hot Outside.” Did you know that? I’ll bet you didn’t. I’ll bet that if you are a tech-oriented Millennial, you didn’t know that, and you probably aren’t gonna believe it. But it’s true. “Don’t expect recent heat waves hitting the southwest to make solar panels produce more energy, according to an industry representative. High temperatures decrease a photovoltaic solar cell’s output by between 10 and 25%, Stuart Fox, a vice president at the green energy company CivicSolar…”
This is in the San Francisco Chronicle so you know they wouldn’t lie about this. “Research indicates that a solar panel’s power output drops by 1.1% for every 1.8 degree rise in temperature above 107 degrees Fahrenheit…” (laughing) See these people out there with their calculators trying to figure what the electrical output for their solar panels is going to be? (laughing) Could you imagine being a liberal? If it’s too hot, you can’t fly a puddle jumper from Arizona — and if it’s too hot, your solar panels aren’t gonna work. If it’s cloudy, your solar panels aren’t gonna work; if the wind doesn’t blow, you’re not gonna have any power.
And the Antarctic ice is melting and we’re gonna die! That’s the daily outlook of the Millennial population. (laughing) The hotter it gets, the worse the solar panels perform. They’re probably thinking it’s the exact opposite. Bright sunlight? Terrific heat? My solar panels are gonna be outputting like never before! And it’s not the case. “‘If you take a glass solar shingle and lay it on the roof, there’s no air going behind it, so it might get a lot hotter — it might get to 140 or 160 degrees Fahrenheit,’ [the expert Stuart] Fox told the Chronicle.”
That’s what I want. I want a bunch of things on my roof that are gonna turn the temperature to 160 degrees Fahrenheit (laughing) while I got my little air-conditioning or my swamp cooler, whatever they use, trying to keep me comfortable in there. Doesn’t that sound like exactly what you’ve wanted? Solar panels on the roof that turn the roof up to 160 degrees. (chuckling) And all the while, they’re downstairs in the basement having an orgy over “sustainability.” (laughing)
A friend of mine bought a solar-powered fan to cool off his car’s interior while parked, but he couldn’t park it in the [widely-available] shade because then the fan wouldn’t work, so he has to park it under the hot sun for it to crank.
It also depends on the materials used on the solar panel. Newer solar panels work well even when temperatures zoom past 120 °F.
To deal with spikes in demand caused by heat waves, utilities run small natural gas plants known as peakers. Those plants can easily start and stop production to fill gaps in supply. But they don’t help California’s goal of lowering carbon emissions.
Oh! The carbon! Oh! The Huge Mantee!
Not mentioned is the fact that they work very well in the cold. Too well sometimes. I’ve had mine shut down the charge controller when the temps hit well below 0. But only for a few minutes at a time.
Wow, that’s a “circle of stupidity.” (the device, not your friend)
And wind power won’t work when it’s too cold. This happened in TX in Feb. 2010. TX was faced with a power shortage because of very frigid temps and the wind turbines stood silent. So our utilities had to buy electrical power from our good friends, the Mexicans, who charged three times the rate because we needed it. When the electric bills came out, people howled. There’s nothing better than good, clean, cheap natural gas.
Also, the slightly diminished output is offset by the long day time this time of year. At my northerly latitude my panels are putting out power long before I get up in the morning (lol) and well into the evening. Have to trim tree limbs constantly, though.
“Photovoltaic solar cells work when energy from the sun excites electrons on the panels, which generates energy the cells can capture. However, at high temperatures it takes less energy to excite the electrons, meaning that the cell produces less power. “
Say what?? If it takes less energy to knock out an electron you should get more not less power.
They use 200 acres of valuable farm land to plant a bunch of windmills for "clean" energy.....and 5 acres or so, with a nuclear power plant, would produce more energy, cheaper, and just as clean.....and require no backup.
I see Rush is happy as someone continues to post his blog on a daily basis improving hits to his site.
Your assessment sounds correct to me. I’d say somebody’s confused about how electronics and physics work.
In the thickness of a solar cell (semiconductor), photons will "strike" and be absorbed by all areas of the thickness. That means some in the N doped layer and some in the P doped layer of the semiconductor "sandwich". The center of the "sandwich" is where the depletion region exists. This is where the real energy is captured from a photon "strike" as the positive/negative charge separation will immediately migrate to the N doped & P doped sides. The rest of the photon strikes just "recombine" in the strictly N doped or P doped only layers.
Heat causes vibration (energy to the atoms). Thus, a phenomenon of "minority current carrier" increases. Minority current carrier increase will increase recombination & thus take away the normally photon absorbed/created "separated" useful charges. So effectively you can say that it takes less energy to excite the electrons (by photons), but the increased recombination of these electrons inside of the cell degrades its useful output.
One start-up company created a dual type solar cell that harnessed the solar cell heat using a backside electricity generating cell called a Peltier effect device. This system required a circulating fluid to transfer thermal energy to piping in the ground - acting as a heat pump system. The extra usable charge current from the Peltier device added to the overall output - while cooling the solar cell and keeping it in a more efficient operating range. Getting the costs down to a competitive product pricing range was their challenge.
Less efficient doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. However CA is now paying AZ to take our solar power so it doesn’t overload the power lines from the desert to LA. In general though solar is not a bad addition for when AC use is at peak. But it can never be more than a fraction of the total supply.
It follows immediately that the power output of a solar cell is reduced by an increase in ambient temperature.
“Thus, a phenomenon of “minority current carrier” increases. Minority current carrier increase will increase recombination & thus take away the normally photon absorbed/created “separated” useful charges.”
Thanks for the explanation. I figured minorities were somehow to blame! Everywhere you go they manage to screw things up! :)
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