My experience has been that very large solar arrays can
be good sources frequently mentioned on the radio by
climbing gliders. eg on the plateau of Valensole, near
Vinon. Perhaps because the panels do get hot quicker
than the surrounding areas of land.

On the "thread crept" topic, though obviously Solar PV
can't work at night, it does significantly substitute for
some very dirty sources when the sun is shining. At the
moment UK and French PV is generating twice as much
power as coal fired, and if you do the sums, that's a lot
of coal unburnt - which I feel has to be good. (I reckon
about 400kg/hr generating 1MW, which incidentally is
about 1 RR Merlin at full chat.)

For real figures see http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

and in the top left corner of that, a link for France




At 11:33 27 June 2017, wrote:
On 27/06/2017 19:11, Tango Whisky wrote:
Le mardi 27 juin 2017 07:02:56 UTC+2,
a écrit :
No. Only a miniscule amount of the sunlight is
turned into electricity.
At this level, (electricity out / total solar energy in)
the efficiency
of PV panels is *buggerall*.

The solar farm will probably not only not produce
thermals, it will
increase your energy costs. Shift to France where
they have cheap
nuclear AND you can go gliding in the alps!

Well, physics doesn't seem to be part of your world.
Today's photovoltaic
solar panels run at an efficiency of about 20%. The
definition of
efficiency is electric power produced, divided by
incident solar power.
These 20% of the incident solar power are not available
for heating.

And if you call nuclear power "cheap", economics
does seem to bother you
either...

As for the French Alps (where you see solar farms
popping up everywhere)
- that's where I fly most of the time.

Physics and economics are both a good part of my
world. You're just
sniffy because I see it differently from you.

Efficiency from solar panels is actually about 15-16% at
best and when
new. And of course it's hard to keep those panels
facing the sun the
whole 24 hours and the output is also *buggerall* in a
lot of places for
half the year as well. Overall? *Miniscule* is a good
word.

Where your physics - and economics - fall apart is
when seeing in the
dark and not freezing at night is factored in. Then the
coal or oil
fired power stations - which would be both cheap and
bloody efficient
during the day as well - really come into their own and
make it clear
that the PV panels are a just a first world sop to a
warped sense of
morality, defective understanding of atmospheric
science and gullibility
in the face of mass media hype...

....and yes, I know they're popping up all over, but lots
of people being
stupid doesn't lessen the degree of each one's stupidity.
--
GC