Mar
09
Is solar power affecting the global climate?
BySo, all these massive mirrors that point to a central cooling tower – surely these mirrors are stopping the suns energy to enter the earth and to radiate back to the atmosphere?
Is solar power going to cause the earth to freeze by stealing the resource of the sun?
9 Comments
March 9th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
No, but they are not very reliable either.
March 9th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
They are but not in the way you think, by using solar power you are burning less hydrocarbon fuel to produce electricity and producing less emissions which block energy from radiating out of the earths atmosphere and creating the “green house effect”. The amount of solar energy collected for solar power is so small that it can not be measured.
March 9th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
No way. There is so much sunlight coming to the earth, that its gonna have almost zero effect on the environment. Global warming is cause by increasing levels of carbon in our atmosphere. Some of the light from the sun is meant to reflect back into space, but the carbon and other greenhouse gases are trapping too much sunlight in our atmosphere, which is changing our weather.
March 9th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
My good sir Solar Power Energy does not waste the Suns energy. Why if it did would it be considered “Energy Efficent?”
March 9th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
no solar power is very clean and safe for the earth
March 9th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
And what happens to this energy when it gets to wherever it is wired to? It is turned into low grade heat by motors, light fittings, water heaters and so forth. Moving energy from one point to another is the function of all power grids, whether the power is generated by burning coal, oil, uranium, use solar collectors or wave and tidal power.
March 9th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
no way…the sunlight is a sustainable sourse of energy, that means it dosnt run out, we will have the sun even tho were using solar power, and it also saves the planet, …
March 9th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
no not really but you might be interested to know that all the green houses used to cultivate vegetables in southern spain are now thought to be slightly reducing the local climate temperatures, so you not that far off the mark.
March 9th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
If solar panels were covering a non-negligible percentage of the earth’s surface, they would have a climate impact (but perhaps more through blocking vegetation on that area rather than blocking light).
It is unlikely that that will happen any time soon, because even covering all of humankind’s energy needs through solar power would only require a minimal area (less than 1%).