Heat waves everywhere. It's summer. Increased demand for air conditioning.
Slight problem - from MSN:
There’s such a thing as too much sun for solar panels, and Europe’s solar industry is starting to buckle
With clear skies and near-constant sunlight, European summers should be high season for the solar power industry.
But while solar panels feed on sunlight, Europe is in the grips of a record-breaking heatwave, and extreme heat is no friend to solar energy producers.
The heat that has been scorching parts of the U.K. and western and southern Europe has set temperature records, started wildfires, damaged infrastructure, and is leaving behind a mounting death toll.
High temperatures have sent electricity demand in Europe soaring, and combined with an ongoing shortage of natural gas on the continent since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, renewable energy sources such as solar have had to step up.
And the problem:
Solar panels around . the . world are manufactured and tested to function optimally at around 77°F, or 25°C, and the range in which most solar panels can still operate at peak efficiency is between 15°C and 35°C. Any hotter, and utility and installation companies warn that a panel’s efficiency can start dropping fast.
So... Fine in theory but when you really really need them, they are running at 25% lower output. You can cool them - water cooling is easy to do as there is only one active side but that is expensive and requires energy. A lot of half-baked ideas are being rushed to market because of government subsidies (read: taxpayer dollars). How about nuclear? Proven technology. Safe (especially LFTR) Instead, these unelected government officials are blowing taxpayer dollars on pipe dreams.
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