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solar panels are great for generating electricity during the day when demand increases. they are even better when mounted on a tracker, a commonly-installed mounting system which moves during the day to follow the sun's arc through the sky, maximising the energy generated each day.
however, solar
panels are not so great when they get covered with snow. a sensor mounted on the tracker determines when snow is present and triggers the tracker's actuators to shake the snow off the panels, much like a dog shaking water from its fur after going for a swim. an entire field of trackers shaking themselves clear every morning would be quite the sight!
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I think if I were installing solar panels at a high northern latitude, I would have them sloping so steeply towards the south that snow would have a hard time sticking to them in the first place. This is because the optimal configuration of solar panels is not necessarily the one that generates the most power in aggregate - it is sometimes the one that generates the most power around the time you need it. So, if you're in a place where it snows, you want your panels facing almost towards the southern horizon, to catch what little sun is available in winter when it briefly peeps above that horizon. |
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We do not have snow. So... |
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Make them jiggle all the time! A judicious sprinkling of Boogie Panels in a 5-acre field of boring, ordinary solar panels would spice things up. |
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And then you can program them to do popular dance moves, or recreate the super bowl halftime show! (+) |
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Sell it to the Chinese - they're way ahead of the rest of entire world when it comes to solar panels and other renewables and of course America is going backwards when it comes to countering pollution and global warming. |
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hmmmm...
You could combine solar panels and wind turbines so that they spin at a high enough rate that rain and snow simply can't stick, theway they do with movie camera lenses for wet scenes. |
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I watched a review video about the Tesla solar roof tiles, and the reviewer noted that even when it snows, they seem to retain enough surface heat that snow doesn't accumulate on them, so no need to clean them off. If it does accumulate at all during a heavy snowfall, it should quickly slide off with even a slight tilt. Google confirms that's true of most solar panels. Has this actually been a problem for you? |
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