If it is dark in Alaska half the year, what about solar items?

Question

Do items such as solar calculators and such still work? Yes I know you can just go inside and turn on the lights.

Answer 1

Little solar items like watches and calculators work like anywhere else - fine indoors and fine outdoors dawn to dusk. And they don't work outdoors at night (the northern lights can get bright enough to cast a shadow but never bright enough to power a solar cell.) Just the nights are longer in Alaska.

Note that where most all Alaskans live (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, etc), there is always daytime and nighttime throughout the year. Very short days in winter and very long in summer (5.5 hours in Dec, 19.5 hours in June where i live in Kenai), but you have to be north of the Arctic Circle (like Prudhoe Bay or the town of Barrow) to have weeks or months without any sun.

In those locations, various solar installations wouldn't work - power for remote highway phones, radio repeater sites, weather stations, railroad switching gates, etc (not that the Alaskan Railroad goes north of Fairbanks). Such off-the-grid uses would require wind power or a fuel-powered, auto-start generator.

Both solar-generated electricity and solar heating are tough up here. When you need it (winter), we've got only a few hours of low-angle sun. When you've got it (summer), you don't use much electricity nor need much heat. Since you need to be on-the-grid or have a generator anyway, the advantages of solar rarely emerge.

I have seen an Aaskan Railroad switching gate just south of Denali National Park with a huge array of PV solar panels for power. At 11 pm, the sun was shining almost directly at the BACK of the panels. Looked all wrong, but they were installed correctly. And sized large for winter use.

Answer 2

Guide To Solar Power : http://Solar.eudko.com/?lRQ