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Some like it cool. Or, why solar works better when it's not so hot

By | August 3, 2010, 9:24am PDT

For some reason, many of us civilians tend to associate solar power with bright sunshiney states like Arizona, California and Florida. But did you know that solar technology actually gets less efficient the hotter it gets?

That’s the thread of a new article published in the Nature Materials journal and discussed by intelligent energy expert Melissa Mahony over on our Smart Planet sister site.

Think of the blazing sunlight reflecting off snow and you’ll understand why places like Alaska (which I featured in this blog about a school using solar panels on its walls instead of the roof) should start rethinking the possibilities of which renewable energy options might be best suite to their climate.

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Solar Energy, Arizona, Telecom & Utilities, Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.

Disclosure

Heather Clancy

Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I am also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I am covering in my blog.

Biography

Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In a past corporate life, Heather was editor of Computer Reseller News, where she was a featured speaker about everything from software as a service to IT security to mobile computing.

Heather started her journalism life as a business writer with United Press International in New York. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and has a thing for Lewis Carroll.

Talkback Most Recent of 7 Talkback(s)

  • None of which alters the fact that the maximum power
    you can EVER get from sunlight on earth is 1 kilowatt per square meter. At the equator.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    frgough
    3rd Aug 2010
  • RE: Some like it cool. Or, why solar works better when it's not so hot
    @frgough
    Very good point, and naturally, given that in Alaska the sun's angle of attack is much lower, there will be much lower energy available per square meter. Not to mention, the number of hours of sunshine is much less during long periods.

    In the end, with eolian or solar, you end up having to build a duplicate supply to fill in the gaps, thus doubling the cost.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    jorjitop
    6th Aug 2010
  • Not very logical
    "For some reason?" Really? You think that "For some reason" people associate solar with the Southwest?

    Gee, could it possibly be because of the amount of days of sunshine there when compared to the rest of the nation?

    I'd wager that a panel seeing sunshine on a hot day vastly outperforms its performance on a cloudy cool day.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Dorkyman
    3rd Aug 2010
  • Output maybe, efficiency no.
    @Dorkyman

    "Some reason" is the second law of thermodynamics. Higher T = higher entropy = less efficient system.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Lester Young
    4th Aug 2010
  • RE: Some like it cool. Or, why solar works better when it's not so hot
    "The hotter it gets, the less efficient photovoltaic solar panels tend to become. Typically, as photons hit the panels, the solar cells convert some of them into electricity. The remaining photons produce heat energy, which escapes the power generation process.

    Engineers from Stanford University, however, have found away to capture both the light and heat energy produced by the sun. Published this week in the journal Nature Materials, their research demonstrates that coating a solar cell?s semi-conducting material with cesium allows the cell to use both light and heat to make electricity."


    Is quoted from your reference but your assertion is:

    "But did you know that solar technology actually gets less efficient the hotter it gets?

    That?s the thread of a new article published in the Nature Materials journal and discussed by intelligent energy expert Melissa Mahony over on our Smart Planet sister site."

    Do you not even read your own references? That is not the "thread" of the article. The "thread" of the article is that new technologies are being developed to harness the heat in addition to the light, not to "start rethinking the possibilities of which renewable energy options might be best suite to their climate."
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Freddy McGriff
    3rd Aug 2010
  • Hot, Thirsty Nuclear
    Nuclear power plants consume and evaporate enormous amounts of water to cool and control. Heat is a far less important factor in the performance of photovoltaics than it is for other forms of energy generation; whether in gross or in per watt measure.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Rate Crimes
    4th Aug 2010
  • Demand-driven
    Energy is most in demand in Arizona, California, Florida, etc. when the sun is shining. Solar energy generation matches the demand for energy very well. The diminished performance of photovoltaics due to ambient heat is relatively negligible.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Rate Crimes
    4th Aug 2010

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