the heat of the desert is way outside of their operating range.
I live in the Phoenix area, there are tons of solar installations here. In fact my house has solar, had it when we bought it 10 years ago, and it cuts the power bill in half.
Yeah the problem has always been that solar panels only really like to operate within a very narrow temperature band. It’s why you can’t just plate the Sahara desert in solar panels. In theory that would generate loads of power but the heat of the desert is way outside of their operating range.
There’s been loads of ideas to heat/cool solar panels, the problem up until now has always been to do that without cutting into the panel’s efficiency so much that it isn’t worth doing.
But there’s been videos on YouTube of people cooling solar panels with plasma cooling and phase change materials for a few years now.
Malfeasant@lemmy.world 2 days ago
fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
Biosolar roofs work for rooftop applications
jumping_redditor@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
I’ve been thinking about getting solar for a while, how bad is the efficiency loss at -30C to -20C?
oyo@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
They gain efficiency at lower temps. Cool, clear days are best. At negative 20C you’re looking at ~15-20% increase in power output from the panel itself. Look for the “temperature coefficient” on a solar module spec sheet.