Could Enough PV Significantly Cool the Desert?

Could 28% efficient PV in the desert transfering the energy by HVDC transmission lines to cities cool the desert significantly?

Yes, if the PV covered most of the valley and was supplying every city in the U.S.

Bret Cahill

Reply to
Bret Cahill
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Deserts globally are getting warmer and drier; I very much doubt photovoltaic cell panels will have enough of a cooling effect to offset that warming.

Reply to
Desertphile

If they keep the sun off the surface, it means irrigation can be used, and crops grown to create soil suitable for growing.

And the panels are sure to reflect some.

Reply to
emoneyjoe

The only crop that grows in the shade is mushrooms.

Reply to
jimp

The panels can be placed to provide any number of hours of sun wanted.

Also, AFAIK, clouds opposite the sun do reflect UV back toward you, so I think it is possible to get a tan staying in the shade on a cloudy day.

Reply to
emoneyjoe

Most crops want about 10 hours of direct sunlight. Where would there be any day time left to generate solar power?

Irrlevant gibberish.

It is impossible to have "clouds opposite the sun" with respect to ground level.

Growing crops requires lots of direct sunlight.

Reply to
jimp

Only in the winter here in the desert.

In the summer the sun evaporates asphalt and the only crop they grow in the summer here is hay and prickley pear.

A little PV cooling could really expand the lettuce $eason.

Bret Cahill

Reply to
Bret Cahill

Utter nonsense.

Many crops can not take the temperatures in desert areas, but they all require direct sunlight to grow.

Try growing some lettuce in the shade and see how far you get.

Reply to
jimp

Only the red wavelengths. Most of the energy in sunlight is green which can be used by PV.

Neither the plants nor the PV need the entire spectrum, and in the desert, neither _want_ the entire spectrum as it provides undesirable heat.

You would know this if you didn't flunk out of middle school.

Bret Cahill

Reply to
Bret Cahill

Irrelevant.

All wavelengths are blocked by the solar panel, whether they are used or not.

Irrelevant.

All wavelengths are blocked by the solar panel, whether they are used or not.

You would know all wavelengths are blocked by the solar panel if your brain hadn't been fried by the desert heat.

Reply to
jimp

How would that stop anyone from using filters to transmit red to the plants while reflecting green to the PV?

Are you this dumb in real life or are you just pulling our legs?

Bret Cahill

Reply to
Bret Cahill

The realities of how reflection works and the fact that solar panels point up say this is utter nonsense.

A red filter would absorb green and there would be nothing to reflect even if this scheme didn't violate every rule of geometry and reflection.

Perhaps it is time for you to come out of the desert sun as it appears your brain has been fried.

Reply to
jimp

Only if you are too stoopid to figger out how to use reflectors & refraction grating.

Care to try again?

Reply to
Bret Cahill

Which are?

Yoiu think "solar panels point up" anywhere outside of the tropics?

. . .

Or reflect green if you weren't as stoopid as a plate of spaghetti

. . .

Here, try again:

Are you this dumb in real life or are you just pulling our legs?

Reply to
Bret Cahill

That one is so insanely stupid it had me rolling on the floor for a while.

I can just see it: giant Taj Mahal's of mirrors, gratings, and solar panels scattered across the landscape with enough room between them to get the farm machinery to the crops you are going to grow in a place that has no water in the first place.

Reply to
jimp

For starters, the angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence.

Unless you know of somewhere where the Sun is underground, yes.

I'll bite, what are you going to use to make this magic filter?

Have you always been a clown with comic book schemes to save the world?

Reply to
jimp

Hope you didn't hurt yourself down on the floor, jimp. Solar cells don't have to be normal to the sunlight to be useful! :-o

Reply to
Sam Wormley

Are you projecting or fessin' up that you are too stoopid to figger out how to use reflectors?

Care to try again?

Reply to
Bret Cahill

You'll need to do more than "starters" to explain how that would stop anyone from using filters to transmit red to the plants while reflecting green to the PV

Care to try again?

Where are these solar panels that point up?

Are you openly admitting you are so ignorant you haven't heard of grating that reflects some wavelengths and transmit others?

Stop dodgin' 'n dodgin.

Here, try again:

Are you this dumb in real life or are you just pulling our legs?

Reply to
Bret Cahill

No, they don't have to be normal, you just have to put up with the sin (theta) loss.

Reply to
jimp

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