Carbon and solar

It seems like almost every day, we read about some disturbing event on earth that is connected to global warming. The news of climate change is so distressing, there are obvious motivations for the changes we see in energy administration. Is it any wonder there’s such a huge movement toward solar energy? In the near future, we will have to make the transition to alternative energy – if not out of anxiety about climate change then because fossil fuels will very soon be totally depleted. But even sustainable energy technologies may have a piddling effect on the global climate, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change. In the study, researchers used computerized climate models to study what would happen if the world’s entire energy supply were switched to solar. They assumed that solar panels would be installed in the immense desert regions of the world, where the supply of sunlight is most intense, and in urban areas, where the demand for power is highest.

Solar absorption is the thing that counts

In locales covered by solar panels, less solar radiation gets consumed by the earth, because it gets sucked up by the solar panels (and converted to electricity) instead. Widespread installation of solar panels would lessen absorption of solar radiation by up to 18% in desert areas, the study found. In turn, this has unpredictable effects on the climate. On a global scale, the changes from solar panel installation are moderately insignificant compared to those projected to occur due to greenhouse gases. But at a provincial level, some of these climatic changes could be significant, the researchers say. The average temperature in desert regions would decrease by about two degrees. Desert rain could also decrease by over 20% because the appearance of solar panels also minimizes cloud cover.

Desert cooling and wind pattern shifts

According to the research, this desert cooling would lead to variations in wind patterns, a change in the location of the jet stream, and different precipitation levels for many regions. Much of Asia, parts of the Middle East, Australia, and the tropical Pacific would lose up to 25 centimeters of average annual rainfall. Rather, that rain would shift to Europe, the North Pacific, western North America, tropical Africa, and the southeast Indian Ocean. (These patterns are opposite to those expected to occur from greenhouse gas-induced warming.)

Areas to the East, or downwind, of arid areas reached by solar panels would also cool off by about one degree. (Exceptions are India and the West Coast of North America, which, due to lower precipitation and modified wind patterns respectively, warm by about one degree instead.)The study makes a fairly unlikely scenario: the researchers assumed that 100 percent of the land area in cities and deserts would be covered with solar panels, which isn’t at all practical. Those solar panels would generate almost 800 terawatts of power, much more than the world needs for power. But the researchers say this sort of analysis can show mechanisms underlying the climate system and help translate the results of more realistic modeling research. So they also created a version of their model that more accurately shows realistic future demands for power. In this scenario, solar panels would be installed across urban areas worldwide and in a section of the Egyptian desert, covering about ten percent of the entire land area devoted to solar panels in the first iteration of the model.

Solar power is the way to go

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