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foobariantoday at 1:25 AM3 repliesview on HN

But, isn't the albedo of a solar panel farm still way dark? It means the radiation is still being captured rather than reflected back up.


Replies

mirashiitoday at 8:06 AM

You're not looking at the albedo of the solar panels in isolation though, you're comparing it to asphalt and cars. Typical solar panels have an albedo of ~0.3. Asphalt around ~0.05.

BurningFrogtoday at 1:39 AM

Capturing the radiation to convert it to electricity is the whole point of solar panels.

lstoddtoday at 5:08 AM

Even if it was just 0 albedo no generation, irradiation on whatever's parked beneath would be cut in half plus rest of (re-)radiation converted into far-ir. This is not unuseful. Just don't mandate this kind of thing in places where parking lots have to be cleaned up with bulldozers in winter.