Comment by joecool1029
17 hours ago
Maybe some WX nerds on HN can answer, but uh... would this help with reducing convection cells that appear above large parking lots? I can look at radarscope during summer and see them roiding up over really large parking lots in my region. Do solar panels help reduce this 'heat island' effect?
Top of my head thought:
Depends on the colour of the cars and pavement. A PV will send ~20% of the light energy hitting it down the wire, the rest = heat.
PVs don’t really reflect back much light for obvious reasons.
The increased surface area might help it radiate more heat at night on a clear day, unless the panels are flat and then it’s no change really.
Is that 20% of the solar energy, or 20% of the visible light, or some other spectrum fraction? It's easy to lose track of what part of the spectrum you're discussing.
> The conversion efficiency of a photovoltaic (PV) cell, or solar cell, is the percentage of the solar energy shining on a PV device that is converted into usable electricity
https://www.energy.gov/cmei/systems/solar-performance-and-ef...