A friend of mine bought a solar-powered fan to cool off his car’s interior while parked, but he couldn’t park it in the [widely-available] shade because then the fan wouldn’t work, so he has to park it under the hot sun for it to crank.
It also depends on the materials used on the solar panel. Newer solar panels work well even when temperatures zoom past 120 °F.
To deal with spikes in demand caused by heat waves, utilities run small natural gas plants known as peakers. Those plants can easily start and stop production to fill gaps in supply. But they don’t help California’s goal of lowering carbon emissions.
Oh! The carbon! Oh! The Huge Mantee!
Not mentioned is the fact that they work very well in the cold. Too well sometimes. I’ve had mine shut down the charge controller when the temps hit well below 0. But only for a few minutes at a time.
And wind power won’t work when it’s too cold. This happened in TX in Feb. 2010. TX was faced with a power shortage because of very frigid temps and the wind turbines stood silent. So our utilities had to buy electrical power from our good friends, the Mexicans, who charged three times the rate because we needed it. When the electric bills came out, people howled. There’s nothing better than good, clean, cheap natural gas.
“Photovoltaic solar cells work when energy from the sun excites electrons on the panels, which generates energy the cells can capture. However, at high temperatures it takes less energy to excite the electrons, meaning that the cell produces less power. “
Say what?? If it takes less energy to knock out an electron you should get more not less power.
They use 200 acres of valuable farm land to plant a bunch of windmills for "clean" energy.....and 5 acres or so, with a nuclear power plant, would produce more energy, cheaper, and just as clean.....and require no backup.
I see Rush is happy as someone continues to post his blog on a daily basis improving hits to his site.
Less efficient doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. However CA is now paying AZ to take our solar power so it doesn’t overload the power lines from the desert to LA. In general though solar is not a bad addition for when AC use is at peak. But it can never be more than a fraction of the total supply.