Okay so.. if light deflect the light of the sun and black absorbs it, then aren't solar panels just absorbing more light, sun and heat into our atmosphere? Wouldn't this lead to an increase in global warming? Shouldn't solar panals be white? No rude answers please.
2007-09-04 14:30:50 · 9 answers · asked by angelmessenger 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
You have the right idea, but the wrong culprit.
Solar Panels have a total square footage that is just a drop in the ocean compared to the square footage on Earth's surface. Very, very small indeed...
However, your idea is most correct and applies to BLACK asphalt highways, driveways, roads, and parking lots. It also applies to all black roofing shingles which you will notice on top of most businesses, most warehouses, many government buildings and gosh knows how many homes all over the world. All of these should be WHITE and if they were, temperatures would be about 20 degrees F lower.
2007-09-04 15:00:38 · answer #1 · answered by zahbudar 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The panels are already in our atmosphere, so they do not bring in more light (the light is already here).
If dark solar panels are on snow (or some other very pale surrooundings) then yes, the panel will "fail to reflect" as much solar light back into space as the snow would.
However, in order to convert solar power into electricity (or anything else), the solar panels must first absorb solar light. Then a white solar panel that would reflect light would not be a good solar panel.
The first thing that determines the color of the panel is the color of the material that must absorb the photons and turn them into electricity. If that stuff is black, then the panel is black. If the stuff is green with yellow polkadots, then the panel is green with yellow polkadots. This is where we presently are with panel-making.
One way out is to find out what is the cutoff wavelength of light needed to produce electricity in a given panel. This is the kind of research for which Einstein got his Nobel prize (not for Relativity).
Electricity will only be produced by photons with shorter wavelengths (= bluer = more energy per photon) than the cutoff. The longer wavelength photons could be reflected back without loss because they will not produce electricity. At least some of the light (the part we don't use) would be reflected.
Therefore, solar panels should look red or yellow (i.e., white minus blue).
Of course, adding such a reflecting filter to the panels will cost more money.
2007-09-04 14:46:55 · answer #2 · answered by Raymond 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It'd be such a tiny tiny amount that it wouldn't make any difference...
but no, because that light and that heat has already entered our atmosphere and if it wasn't absorbed by the solar panels, most of it would be absorbed by something else. Even if they were white, that heat wouldn't get reflected all the way out of our atmosphere.
I don't know anything about solar panels, but I would think that they need to be black to absorb as much sun to convert it into electricity.
2007-09-04 14:39:17 · answer #3 · answered by pab 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If the panels are deployed at outer surface of atmosphere then white will reflect the sun light to outer space. If the panels are deployed at earth surface, inside the atmosphere, most of the reflected light will be bounced back to earth by the atmosphere. For the solar panels we are talking about, they need to be dark color to absorb light and turn into electricity.
2007-09-05 19:50:54 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If the photograph voltaic panel in basic terms pondered each and all the capability from the sunlight, then it may not exchange any of it into electricity. the way photograph voltaic panels artwork is to soak up gentle and alter it into electricity. The panels are actually not a hundred% helpful, so as that they mirror some gentle. A a hundred% helpful panel could look completely black and a hundred% of the sunlight falling on it may be absorbed, replaced to electricity, and pop out the twine as electricity, not warmth.
2016-11-14 05:24:23 · answer #5 · answered by lauramore 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1
2017-03-06 04:27:24 · answer #6 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That Heat Is Necessary , It Makes The Cells Work Better
2007-09-04 18:29:33 · answer #7 · answered by engelfeurs 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, Im thinking that some high paid engineers figured out the most effect means of collecting solar energy. yea, thats my thought
2007-09-04 14:39:41 · answer #8 · answered by chillen 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It could, but there isn't enough solar pannels to cause Global Warming.
Solar pannels are very limited.
2007-09-04 16:46:59 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋