Printable View
And plenty of coal power in Poland which they buy.Quote:
Plenty of solar panels in Germany, where it also snows.
Germany has not improved the percentage of renewables over several years , mainly because they have to buy coal power from Poland.
Regards Philip A
Very soon even this issue has the potential to flip around in the near future.Quote:
Originally Posted by PhilipA
Possible graphene solar panel tech into the future.
Watch the vid, at about the 5 min mark he explains that using graphene could potentially generate electrical energy due to water on the solar panel surface.
Granted that conversion efficiency is extremely low(up to 6%) .. but any advance is better than none.
Solar panels in high latitudes can be tilted to near vertical so snow mostly just slides off. Low temperatures are very good for panel output too, 25C is just a test temperature point. They are quite happy to work in sub zero conditions.
Plenty of people get sunburnt in the snow, so UV is still happening.
It is ironic....driving a Prius into the drive through of Maccas to get a Big Mac that is now available 24 hours a day...
https://www.google.com/url'sa=t&sour...CzkQYvOxEXUCVp
Which Is Worse for the Planet: Beef or Cars? - EcoWatch
Cow 'emissions' more damaging to planet than CO2 from cars | The Independent
The answers are pretty simple. Less meat/No meat and veggies (that take also a small fraction of the water and land requirements of raising meat) and keep driving existing vehicles and save MASSIVE amounts of dollars at least and until battery tech has blitzed the current crop of batteries and transition slowly and in a way which people and economies can afford (Oh...side benefit we save billions on the heart and obesity epidemic alone).
Cheers
This thread has veered right off topic, but I found this little clip that shows what snow can be like in the USA, Although this is New Brunswick in Canada.
No solar panels to be seen , but I think they would not be producing much for quite a while if they were there.
I think it is amusing that posters nearly always quote the "next big thing" about solar which really ignores reality and economics. How much will graphine panels cost for example when/if they ever get to mass production. How much to solar roof tiles cost?
I haven't seen glowing reports in the media so I wonder if they are successful in marketing terms.
Also what will solar panels do to insurance rates once insurance companies wake up to how vulnerable they are to hail. There is a street in Wamberal ( Windsor Road)where 80% of the panels remain broken after a storm a couple of months ago. The nearby Breakers club has scores of panels which I thought at first glance were OK , but the news is that many were damaged.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4BlEB9sYIU
Regards Philip A
If hail was severe enough to break the strong glass on solar panels then that would be the least of their problems.
Knowing how insurance companies work,the will just take solar panels out of the policy.
Simple.
Or charge an exorbitant rate to have them in the policy,particularly on a commercial property.
I would also be concerned about them being ripped off roofs in storms and becoming missiles.
You might get sunburnt but doesn't mean you can argue - "hey it might be cloudy but what about the all the UV that gets through the clouds to the solar panels, they will still work".Quote:
Originally Posted by DiscoMick
1) They are not particularly efficient at UV wavelengths.
2) Protective screens over the cell (glass) don't transmit UV well.
3) As a proportion of total energy in sunlight, the fraction UV & shorter wave length reaching the earth surface is <10% of the total.
You can probably engineer the effects of points 1 and 2 to mitigate the problem but you can't change the physics of point 3. Most energy reaching the earth's surface is IR and visible light. Sweet FA is UV.
The Solar Spectrum And Why “UV Solar Panels” Are A Con Job
Never had any insurance company question our solar panels when arranging insurance on our properties.