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Global whatever hysteria aside, solar panels only collect the sunlight that hits them, they don't pull it in, and even in collector arrays, they only use the sunlight hitting that specific spot.
True.
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Now, that said, the materials the panels are made from can be toxic. While most are made from silicon, those are usually only around 20% efficent based on the potential energy in the sunlight/energy conversion into usable electricity. Using rare earth minerals or other toxic elements such as boron or germanium increase efficency to around 30%, but are so toxic that even cracking the cell could cause serious health problems or death to the people working around them.
Citation needed.
Toxic compounds are used in the production of solar panels, but I can find nothing to suggest that "even cracking the cell could cause serious health problems or death to the people working around them"
Toxic compounds are used in the production of solar panels, but I can find nothing to suggest that "even cracking the cell could cause serious health problems or death to the people working around them"
Besides, there is nothing toxic about elemental boron or elemental germanium unless you snort it or eat it.
Please review the special rules for this forum in the sticky thread at the top. If you wish to debate the reality of climate change or global warming, this is not the forum for that.
Is there an echo in here?
Your local area or neighborhood is not immune to global warming if it is based in fact.
At least once a week I hear the term "global warming" from the media. No one seem to have a definite clue on what may be causing it or if its a fact at all. Some people think it can be controlled by stopping the amount of carbon emissions...etc. Some think solar panels is one tool that can help solve the carbon emission problem. Questioning with an inexperienced non-scientific mind, if global warming really exist, can more solar panels be a contributor to it? Solar Panels are designed to collect/attract the sun rays and turn them into energy. Like a magnet drawing in not only rays but heat also. With enough solar panels scattered everywhere on the planet, that's a lot of heat being drawn to the planet that wasn't being drawn in before the creation of solar panels. The reason for this question, I think back as a kid with a magnifying glass in hand me an my friends used to set things on fire using the magnifying glass to collect the suns power/rays. With this in mind, I think of some solar panel farms in different locations and some that you can't get close to, because of the heat being generated. And I never heard of a "heat test" being done on the area around these solar panel farms, a test of the amount of heat being drawn in or a theory/test of the cumulative compounding affect of heat/rays being collected by so many solar panels.Anyone with a clue please chime in!
Thanks for all comments. It seem my question still stand. It also seem that there hasn't been any meaningful study/test of the amount of additional heat that might be drawn to the earth with the use of solar panels and its possible affects. I'm sorry if I upset some with the name "global warming". But changing the name don't change the condition. I'm also sorry if some think this thread don't have anything to do with local issues. Please think again.
Thanks for all comments. It seem my question still stand. It also seem that there hasn't been any meaningful study/test of the amount of additional heat that might be drawn to the earth with the use of solar panels and its possible affects. I'm sorry if I upset some with the name "global warming". But changing the name don't change the condition. I'm also sorry if some think this thread don't have anything to do with local issues. Please think again.
Explain the physics of how a solar cell could "draw" more energy to the Earth. This sounds like the concern of a child with no understanding a Physics. Any concern I might have is with the astounding level of ignorance associated with the question.
That's not the way it works, I've not made any claims in this thread or any others about what is the absolute cause of warming. If I had made that claim then I would need to prove it unequivocally.
Thought so
You questioned my choice of recommending Hansen and pointing out that he is an activist. What's wrong with someone doing THEIR OWN science, believing in his OWN results and advocating change based on that?
At least once a week I hear the term "global warming" from the media. No one seem to have a definite clue on what may be causing it or if its a fact at all. Some people think it can be controlled by stopping the amount of carbon emissions...etc. Some think solar panels is one tool that can help solve the carbon emission problem. Questioning with an inexperienced non-scientific mind, if global warming really exist, can more solar panels be a contributor to it? Solar Panels are designed to collect/attract the sun rays and turn them into energy. Like a magnet drawing in not only rays but heat also. With enough solar panels scattered everywhere on the planet, that's a lot of heat being drawn to the planet that wasn't being drawn in before the creation of solar panels. The reason for this question, I think back as a kid with a magnifying glass in hand me an my friends used to set things on fire using the magnifying glass to collect the suns power/rays. With this in mind, I think of some solar panel farms in different locations and some that you can't get close to, because of the heat being generated. And I never heard of a "heat test" being done on the area around these solar panel farms, a test of the amount of heat being drawn in or a theory/test of the cumulative compounding affect of heat/rays being collected by so many solar panels.Anyone with a clue please chime in!
OK. Have you done your research to understand how a solar panel creates electricity? Why not do that first and then see if you need to ask the question again?
By the way, heat is not "drawn in" into the solar panel, this is not what creates the electricity.
The topic is whether solar panels contribute to global warming, not whether global warming is a real phenomenon, and the physics involved proves that the answer to the question asked is no, as several posters have pointed out in various ways.
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Originally Posted by rmaster
Thanks for all comments. It seem my question still stand. It also seem that there hasn't been any meaningful study/test of the amount of additional heat that might be drawn to the earth with the use of solar panels and its possible affects.
No, this question is simply not true as stated. It's based on a misunderstanding of the fundamental laws of physics. Solar panels do not attract heat, either to earth or to themselves. Sunlight falls uniformly on earth in a more or less constant rate, whether it falls on land, water, mountains, valleys, snow, solar panels, or tinfoil hats.
Thanks for all comments. It seem my question still stand. It also seem that there hasn't been any meaningful study/test of the amount of additional heat that might be drawn to the earth with the use of solar panels and its possible affects. I'm sorry if I upset some with the name "global warming". But changing the name don't change the condition. I'm also sorry if some think this thread don't have anything to do with local issues. Please think again.
No, your question doesn't stand at all. Your OP was a horribly incorrect understanding of how solar panels work and you've ignored the comments that have answered that.
A fixed amount of sunlight is going to hit any given square yard of the earth's surface. That is a fact that you can't change. There are no "sunlight magnets" in existence.
A solar panel does not increase the amount of sunlight that hits a particular section of land. It DOES refocus the sunlight. The target of the refocusing absorbs the sunlight instead of the original piece of land that would have received that same sunlight. Overall it's sunlight neutral.
As a simple example, picture a mirror. Hold that up outside so that it's angled at your house. You're redirecting the sunlight and warming the spot on the house that the light hits. At the same time, the shadow of the mirror receives less sunlight.
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