If all of mankind’s energy was supplied through solar panels would the effect be big enough to decrease the temperature (since light is converted in part to electricity)?
If all of mankind’s energy was supplied through solar panels would the effect be big enough to decrease the temperature (since light is converted in part to electricity)?
Elaborate?
The assumption here is that solar panels make sure that the energy from the sun gets turned into electricity instead of heat. However, pretty much everything that uses electricity is technically a 100% efficient electrical space heater (eg. A fan turns electricity into heat and kinetic energy… which dissipates into heat). So the only way that solar panels could have a cooling effect is if we didn’t use the electricity (someone smarter than me will probably be able to point out exceptions to this, but still this should be the case for the majority of uses).
Also, since solar panels are intended to capture as much solar energy as possible (hence why they are typically black), the realistic effect of covering the planet with them would probably be a temperature increase
The sum of consumed energy will stay the same, so will be the heat generated by consumption. The only way to efectively decrease temperature is to reduce consumption. http://www.zo.utexas.edu/courses/THOC/Global-Warming.htm