Ice Chunks And Covered Solar Panels: Winter's Challenges For Clean Energy

New York Times:

This time of year, wind turbine blades ice up, biodiesel congeals in tanks and solar panels produce less power because there is not as much sun. And perhaps most irritating to the people who own them, the panels become covered with snow, rendering them useless even in bright winter sunshine.

So in regions where homeowners have long rolled their eyes at shoveling driveways, add another cold-weather chore: cleaning off the solar panels. "At least I can get to them with a long pole and a squeegee," said Alan Stankevitz, a homeowner in southeast Minnesota.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[weatherwaxx]

This is a new technology. Nothing works perfectly from the get-go. (200 years ago, small children were sent into chimneys to clean out soot; a lot of them died of cancer, but they were from impoverished families, so no one cared... because wood and coal fires were the only way to keep warm.) There are going to be a lot of bugs to be ironed out.

But consider... a solar array mounted behind a clear plexiglass shield, like you see in bus stops, would still get most of the benefit.

Or solar panels in areas that do NOT have severe winter weather, freeing up fossil fuel for areas that must depend on non-passive systems...?

There's no ONE technology that's going to work for everyone.... but wind turbine arrays work year-round in Canada, which is north of most of the US of A. And solar panels work in Scandinavia, which has longer winter nights than most of the US.

Renewable tech will work -- if the oil companies hadn't been suppressing the technology for the past 30 years, we would not be in the crisis we face now.

[joebaggadonuts]

Passive heated homes help. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/world/europe/27house.html?_r=1&em

[Biofriendlyblog]

While it might be worth it for those people to have to clean the snow off their solar panels in order for them to work in winter months....do you think someone mentioned that factor before the panels were installed?
And how many people do you think would actually go out into the snow and clean off their solar panels in order to get solar power during the winter? Just curious.

[joebaggadonuts]

If you live in really cold climes, NOT going out in the snow will give you cabin fever, so going out to clean the solar panels will be normal.

[research]

an anti friction coating should allow the snow to slip off.

[weatherwaxx]

I expect anyone who's serious about living green would do some homework before choosing a system. Ever read Mother Earth News? It's got first-hand accounts by people living sustainably. People can learn from each other's experiments.