More Cold Hard Truths about Solar Panel Farms

George Franklin writes As more & more counties get more solar farms…Here’s some truth about solar farms.  H/T John Ray at Greenie Watch

I should start by telling you what bonafides I have for writing this. I am a retired aerospace engineer. A literal rocket scientist if you will. I worked on MX (Peacekeeper) Space Shuttle, Hubble, Brilliant Pebbles, PACOSS, Space Station, MMU, B2, the Sultan of Brunei’s half billion dollar private 747 with crystal showers, gold sinks and 100 dollar a yard coiffed silk carpets. I designed a satphone installation on prince Jeffry’s 757. I did all of the design work for the structure of Mark 1V propulsion module currently flying on at least 3 spacecraft that I know of. Some of the more exciting projects I have worked on are not shareable.

Solar panels are at best about 20% efficient.

They convert almost 0% of the UV light that hits them. None of the visible spectrum and only some of the IR spectrum. At the same time as they are absorbing light they are absorbing heat from the sun. This absorbed heat is radiated into the adjacent atmosphere.

It should be obvious what happens next. When air is warmed it rises. Even small differences in ordinary land surfaces are capable of creating powerful forces of weather like thunderstorms and tornadoes. These weather phenomena are initiated and reinforced by land features as they are blown downwind. It is all too obvious to me what will happen with the heat generated by an entire solar farm. Solar farms will become thunderstorm and tornado incubators and magnets.

Solar panels are dark and and they emit energy to the space above them when they are not being radiated. This is known as black-body radiation. Satellites flying in space use this phenomenon to cool internal components. If they didn’t do this they would fry themselves.

So solar farms not only produce more heat in summer than the original land
that they were installed on, but they also produce more cooling in winter,
thus exacerbating weather extremes.

So I conclude with this. There is nothing green about green energy except the dirty money flowing into corrupt pockets.  There is no such thing as green energy. The science doesn’t exist. The technology doesn’t exist. The engineering doesn’t exist. We are being pushed to save the planet with solutions that are worse than the problems.

7 comments

  1. Pingback: More Cold Hard Truths about Solar Panel Farms | Worldtruth
  2. jchr12's avatar
    jchr12 · January 17, 2024

    Nice one Ron. I have forwarded your report to a UK organization trying to stop solar farms, but moving them to rooftops. At first blush quite sensible, but in reality, simple moving the problem.

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    • Ron Clutz's avatar
      Ron Clutz · January 17, 2024

      Thanks jchr. I confirmed what Franklin was saying about PV panel efficiencies. Depending on the material, there is a specific bandwidth gap of light that is absorbed. 95% of panels are made of crystalline silicon c-Si using 850 nm, in the near IR. Efficiency rating is theoretically 25%.

      Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542435120301847

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      • jchr12's avatar
        jchr12 · January 17, 2024

        Now Ron, you can call be a hypocrite. Why? Because I have a 4kWh solar panel array on my home.

        I rushed to have it fitted in 2016 just before the generation rates reduced, and were no longer to be pro-rated to national costs. Since installation it has produced an income of £550 annually, but more importantly, reduced electricity consumption by kWh based on prevailing costs.

        So I enjoyed a pay-back of just over 6 years, making it a sensible investment.

        Even present generation rates make them a good deal, and so will remain popular until disposal costs are levied, or environmental considerations are applied.

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      • Ron Clutz's avatar
        Ron Clutz · January 17, 2024

        Don’t beat yourself up about it. Organic farming is also fine for a few. The problems come when things are scaled up with unintended consequences.

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  3. Mark Krebs's avatar
    Mark Krebs · January 17, 2024

    another graphic for your library

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