From STOP THESE THINGS
Solar panels are not the most robust of power generation sources. A blanket of snow and ice readily kills their occasional, sunshine-dependent output. They tend not to appreciate gale-force winds (see above) and hailstones of any substance are usually fatal (see below).
A few weeks ago, STT reported on a burst of hot weather in the UK which rendered millions of solar panels practically useless, simply because their output falls as temperatures rise.
Pierre Gosselin revisits that aspect of solar’s inherent unreliability and then turns to another, where hailstones wiped out thousands of solar panels in Nebraska.
Coal To The Rescue In Britain As Solar Panels Also Work Too Poorly In The Summertime
No Tricks Zone
Pierre Gosselin
23 June 2023
Summer temperatures in the UK have boosted the demand for electricity, and so the country has “started burning coal again for electricity generation for the first time in a month and a half,” reports Blackout News here, citing the Telegraph, June 13, 2023.
Apparently in the summery weather, Britain’s solar panels have refused to cooperate. In the heat, their efficiency dropped considerably and so the country’s electricity demand could not be met without coal power.
Coal to the rescue
“On Monday 12 June, a unit at the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power station in Nottinghamshire, owned by German energy company Uniper, went back online in the UK after a weeks-long break. Another coal-fired power station was kept on standby in case additional power demand arose in the early afternoon,” according to Blackout News. “The yield of solar energy the previous weekend was almost a third less than the weekend before. This was due to the high temperatures, which exceeded 30 degrees Celsius in many parts of the country,”
Solar’s many technical drawbacks
This represents yet another technical drawback solar energy faces. It not only works extremely poorly in the wintertime, when energy is really in high demand, but also in the summer when temperatures climbed in the range of 30°C. The only time solar panels seem to work is when they are not really needed.
Work only when you don’t need them
Solar panels are designed to work best when their surface temperature is 25″C. But in the summertime, their surfaces can easily reach 60 or even 70°C. According to the rule, every degree temperature over 25°C means a 0.5% loss in efficiency. That means at 65″C, the panel loses 20% of its rated efficiency.
25% less output
“Alastair Buckley, Professor of Organic Electronics at the University of Sheffield, explained that the higher temperatures have contributed to much of the decline in solar energy production. Compared to a cool, cloudy day, solar panels could be more than 25 per cent less efficient,” writes Blackout News.
In Germany, where nuclear power has been phased out, the country is coping with its energy troubles in its own brilliant way: importing nuclear power from France!
So well green energies are working here in Europe!
No Tricks Zone
Huge Nebraska Solar Park Completely Smashed To Pieces By One Single Hail Storm!
No Tricks Zone
Pierre Gosselin
28 June 2023
The Scottsbluff, Nebraska 5.2 MW Community Solar project was part of the NPPD’s Sunwise program that consisted of an array has over 14,000 solar panels. It’s reported that it had been put into operation in 2019.
Surely the project had been ceremoniously put into operation, with dignitaries and proponents proclaiming it would reliably deliver cheap and clean energy, reduce the state’s carbon footprint and contribute to a bright and climate-friendly future.
Now it has been just recently reported that the multimillion dollar solar energy park was literally reduced to a heap of rubble as hail literally pummeled it to a pulp in just a matter of minutes days ago.
The disaster underscores once again just how vulnerable to the forces of nature solar energy parks are. The system’s 25-year expected lifetime was cut to down to less than 4 years, and makes you wonder if setting up such weather-vulnerable plants make any sense at all.
Dreams vs reality
“This project will help the city achieve its goal to reduce our carbon footprint and stabilize city costs for the next 25 years,” said Nathan D. Johnson, City Manager, City of Scottsbluff. “Through projects like this, we hope to offer an affordable ‘green’ option to our residents, both residential and commercial, to reap the benefits as well.”
That was the dream. A couple of days ago we witnessed the reality.
Now residents will surely have to rely on good old, reliable fossil fuel power to keep the electricity flowing.
And how long will it take to clean up the toxic mess left behind?
No Tricks Zone
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