can solar panels work in extremely cold weather like -30 F?

Question

can it?

i mean can i leave my solar panels in -30 F weather and come back to them and they would be the sam

Answer 1

Yes, they can. There are some caveats. These include:

1. The ability to move electrons (or the moles between the electron holes). These can be affected by temperature.

2. The amorphous glass itself. Sometimes this is not able to conduct very well in low temperatures (water buildup or even frost on the glass itself.

3. Sputter on plastic solar cells don't work well in extreme cold because plastic tends to harden in this type of environment.

4. It is not cold that affects the solar cell. Space is cold. What really affects solar cells is water and humidity.

Answer 2

Solar panels depend on light from the sun - not the temperature. The only problem you might have is less sunlight during the shorter days - or perhaps the shadows from trees or whatever have shifted because of the Sun's winter position.

One answer would be to place mirrors, or anything bright white for reflectors.., at slight angles on either side of your solar panels to reflect more light back to the solar panels.

You don't want the angle of your mirror or white surfaced reflectors placed too sharp nor too shallow.

Answer 3

Yes they can. HOWEVER, because of the angle of the earth that a temprature like that suggests, you wouldn't get as much energy as you would during the summer w/o tilting the solar panels at an extreme angle.


If you don't know that the angle of the sun to the angle of the solar panels effects the amount of energy the photo cells are able to absorb, please pick up a physics book. You want 90 degrees, anything less than a right angle means you are not absorbing as much energy.

Answer 4

As long as solar rays are collected on the panel they will work.As costs of solar products decrease, solar energy is replacing electricity/fossil in many application like lighting, cooking and heating. More information at http://altenergy.in/

Answer 5

for a solar panel to work what is needed is ultra violet rays. As long as you get this the out side temperature does not matter

Answer 6

I think u can but u will need to protect them from the freezing of ice around them. Also when u put them together isolate them with diodes so if something happens to one it want short out the hole system . A big problem is that have so much area that a slight wind can tare the hold thing down.

Answer 7

solar panels are photovoltaic.. in other words they capture light, not heat