Comment by Scoundreller
18 hours ago
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...