alt Hacker News> There's easily a factor of 3 or 4 difference in output between a solar panel in Australia vs Northern Europe
That only really matters if there is some constraint preventing you from building a proportionally larger array at the northern latitudes.
> There's easily a factor of 3 or 4 difference in output between a solar panel in Australia vs Northern Europe
That only really matters if there is some constraint preventing you from building a proportionally larger array at the northern latitudes.
No, you cannot just build a larger array.
That map doesn't effectively capture the intermittency of solar energy in different climates. In Britain the country gets less than 8 hours of energy during peak winter. It also often goes with overcast skies for extended periods of time. A bigger array does not solve these extended periods of non-production.