Environmental Impact of Solar Power Farms

The impact of shading the ground is insignificant compared to the environmental impact of the toxins created by manufacturing photovoltaic panels.

This is a real problem as is the energy used in the creation of the different materials and parts.

The same thing happens to the ground that happens to it at night but to lesser extent or to similar extents as what happens on cloudy days.

Really you have absolutely nothing better to worry needlessly about?

Not worrying, just curious if these claims of environmental side effects have any credence whatsoever. Acclording to the objectors. The permanent shadow effect will reduce daytime heat gain. End result could be a couple of degrees lower surface ground temp. This amount of temperature difference is known to affect plant life so maybe they are correct and it may also affect insects that burrow into the top layer of the soil.

@ guest. I am vell aware of the toxins involved in the manufacture of solar cells and other electronic equipment since I was the company health and safety iofficer in one electronic manufacturing facility and the Production Manager of another facility back in the dark ages before we exported the toxic manufacturing to unsuspecting victim workers offshore. Now its out of sight and out of mind. NIMBY at its finest.

Now we can go around patting ourselves for being green by using solar power.

However a umber of friends who happen to be glider pilots have mentioned the thermal effect of plowed fields that are darker than adjacent untouched fields. several hundred acres of nearly black solar panels may develop stronger thermals than a plowed field. This will bring up moist air and leads to cloud formation at higher altitudes than ground level.

I think shading effects would be minimal. The total area of all solar farms in use and to be built is minuscule comparatively. The real concern is the waste stream from the production of the panels.

Yeah, and how bout that shading under buildings, parking lots, trees, highways, and umbrellas? Huh; what about that gosh darnit?

we should definely paint the dark fields a lighter color then!

Solar farms generally require on the order of 20 hectares of land to generate 1 megawatt of electricity. Plants need light to grow. Look at the pictures of the solar farms- any plants growing under the panels? Without plants, what about the insects and small animals that feed on plants? Birds? What are the birds going to eat?

Oh, they are falling out of the sky due to some mysterious phenomenon. We don't have to worry about feeding birds any more...

I can still think of a whole lot better uses for 20 hectares of land...Like maybe producing food for the growing population...

By the way, most deserts are not void of life. Most plants in desert environments need more sunlight that those in more temperate zones.

Look at the pictures of the solar farms- any plants growing under the panels?

Probably due to the limited use the land had to begin with, given that someone saw fit to use it for solar power in our current market. As you note, these areas are often desert-like to begin with, with sparse vegetation.

There are plenty of plant species that do well in shade, they just don't grow much in a desert. Obviously, a desert ecosystem is going to feature plants that do well with abundant sunshine, and using the land for any farming would require a different kind of plant. A change in plant life is a potential side effect of solar farms, with both good and bad aspects.

Shade or sunlight is only one of many aspects necessary for any flora or fauna to flourish in a given habitat. It is the bio diversity that makes the planet work. Even so called empty desert serves a useful function.

All these government subsidized projects to develop a replacement power source to feed our insatiable appetite for power is doomed to failure because most of them are primarily intended to line somebody's pocket. Look who owns most of the manufacturing plants that produce solar panels.

Solar is not going to replace all of our other power generating capacity. There is not enough area available. We have to find ways to acomplish the same results but using less power.

The environment is no doubt complicated. I did not mean to imply otherwise.

Someone is going to get rich by providing new sources of energy, there's no doubt about it. What's the problem, again?

Much as it pains me to agree with the a-hole on anything, but I have no choice to acknowledge that Dick Cheney was right when he said conservation is not a solution to our energy problems. It's a virtuous thing to do and speaks to the love of efficiency that many of us have, but it's not going to solve anything. You see, we'll just find new things to use the energy we conserve.

It's not a question of replacing all of our energy needs. Are you prepared to say that since petroleum is not going to replace all of our other power generating capacity, that we should stop subsidizing its use? IMO, the more solar, the better.

E=mc²

matter is stored energy, and one day we will figure it out, and not have this problem any more.

till then, I also am forced to agree with the ahole.

An unlimited supply of zero or low cost energy with no CO² or other pollutants is seen as the holy grail for the sustainable energy community.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Almost all the energy we produce ultimately ends up as heat. Whether it is losses incurred in moving energy from A to B, energy converted directly into heat to keep people/things warm, conversion inefficiencies when energy is used to produce movement or friction created by that movement.

The argument about whether CO² does or does not create global warming is not one I want to get into here.

If we produce more heat than the planet can radiate into space the planet WILL warm up. C is a big number, C² is a bigger number. We don't need to convert a lot of mc² into E to create a much bigger problem than we have now

Who does own all the solar manufacturing plants. Could you list them for us.

mark N.

Do not know all but both BP and the Shell oil companies are among the leaders in PV production. I am no expert at tracing corporate ownerships but both BP and Shell advertise solar panels under their own name.

geez don't tell California that... they are high enough already!

clearly not a serious question, solar panels on farms sit at a 300degree angle and are always well lit underneath most of the daytime and the other part they have the sun hitting underneath directly.

re-radiating heat? that is complete BS, there is no more heat or energy created than already exists from the sun creating it in the first place or it would be free energy created by an inanimate object.

last but not least, semi filtered light areas are the most fertile in the world, full sun areas are less fertile as nutrients are primarily bio organic, not mineral and are destroyed by prolonged exposure to the sun, EG:rainforest floors V deserts

The rubbish energy companies will come up with is hilarious.

The real question is whether or not the objectors to building yet more solar farms have any legitimate basis for their protest. They claim subtle changes may cause eventual environmental changes. Who knows?

By the same token, had anyone said hydro-electric dams were not environmentally sound they would have been laughed at back in 1890. Now a century later we have seen first hand what effects these power dams have on the environment. Some good some bad. Yet the best experts back then did not forsee what effects these dams would have.

When the high Aswan dam was built nobody predicted how fast the resevoir would silt up nor how devastating the blockage of the annnual inundation would be on local agriculture. In restrospective this and other dams are not as benign as first assumed.

Solar panels tend to run many degrees hotter than ambient air. That heat has to go somewhere. If not re radiated then where does it go? Reputable solar panel suppliers post advice on how to prevent over heating and point out high temperatures degrade output ability.

Please clarify where solar panels are mounted at 300 degrees and measured relative to what?. The best systems are solar tracking so they move constantly. That statement must be some kind of typo.

Reflection of sunlight back from Solar panel has a role in equivalent carbon dioxide reduction, like the reflecting galvalume sheets used in Factory sheds. Best option of Solar power plants are in Desert areas. Why to loose even a small vegetation area by solar panels? Consider a 200MW solar plant and then see its impact on soil. So making such plant in dry desert areas are better.

Your example is not the best. The Assouan dam was build by "soviet technology" which destroyed as well the Aral see and other parts of nature, which is at the base of the worse nuclear problem in the world (Tchernobyl) not to speak of others.

These guys did not make ANY impact study on the environment, all was politics.

The slogan was :" man will master nature ". The Aral see was destroyed because of a derivation of the Amou Daria flow for a land where they produced bad quality cotton. They did not consider the looses by evaporation so that the once huge and beautiful see is now a small ugly region. Look at pictures showing ships at 30 km from shore ar more stranded.

With respect to same Assouan Dam there were comments made at that time by experts but those experts were from the West and Nasser wanted get free from west and accepted without comments all what the soviets said and did. Again politics!

'The rubbish energy companies will come up with is hilarious.'

Well put.

It is interesting to note that BP, Shell, and other oil companies are major promoters of solar energy...

Even the oil companies know that the oil won't last forever, that and 'green' technologies are good PR.

"at a news release of a huge solar farm I can see they shadow the ground underneath. What happens to the soil below and what is the effect"

Foreign, ie, "not native" birds are to be banned here in Australia, these birds that migrate, every year from Europe. It is estimated that a million dollars of damage is being done each day. I know this to be true because I was told it by somebody who "Really" knows.

Swallows are the worst.

Their shadows, lull all of our worms into thinking it is night time, and can come out and play. And these mongrel Foreign birds swoop and eat 'emselves silly.

Most of these birds have been trained by French secret Agents ( Rainbow Warrior) and are being actually airlifted to French Polynesia to be closer,and thus preventing bird losses and deaths from flying all the way. We know this, because the birds are calling in French, and even have a Provincial French accent. Even to us dumb Aussies, we can pick it a mile off.

The current daylight saving is being used to try and compensate for this vicious attack. Our Federal Government, Labour/Republican, are about to authorise $350million dollar study, as to how more sunlight can be found and usefully used.

Australia could also join the USA, missile defense Net, to help sort these vicious birds out.

Answer to your Question. I am really, really worried, really.!

Concerned. Mark N.

The environmental impact of a solar farm is more than its shadow. Dust on the collectors must be washed off, and that consumes water, which is generally in short supply where insolation is high enough for a solar farm. For concentrating solar, where thermal storage is used to generate power when the sun is down, wet cooling for the steam condenser wastes more water. Another objection is clearing the site. On balance, however, solar farms might have a future if only they can be connected to the grid, or if some other job can be found for the energy they collect, such as, for example, cracking CO2 to make fuel.

As I see it the electricity produced by a solar farm out in the desert is a hell of a lot better than some coal plants chugging out tons of CO2 every day.....and let's not forget about the environmental damage and rape of the land resulting from the mining of coal, let alone the inherent dangers of such operations. In many ways, the waste stream resulting from the manufacturing of the PV panels can be seriously minimized or nearly eliminated using Best Technologies, especially in regards to recycling of waste materials...

Have a sunny day!

We are already abusing land resources. Technologies abusing land resources and plant life are just other devils with green smile. Wind mills have already made hikes on land prices. Solar power is best meant for spaceships and not for the planet. All these alternatives can never meet sustainability.Misleading missions to uncertain future.

The heat would be lessen that of sun rays, so soil is cooler and loses less moisture which is positive impact! But the heat raising air above the panels can initiate a tornado and that could blow all the panels and restore the nature of things.

I think you are board and have nothing to do. Invent something without warring for inevitable changes to come.

If nothing is growing whats the problem

and i think you will find that the ground re radiates the heat when warm so i cannot see any problem

on a more positive note what about placing the solar panels on existing buildings.

this would have a number of advantages

the solar panels would enhance the water proofing of the buildings

the panels would shade the buildings thus saving on air conditioning,

the ground warming problem would be avoided altogether

aesthetically as all the buildings would have solar panels on their roofs all the buildings would look the same (from the air anyway) so planning permission should be easier

This makes a whole lot of sense- except there aren't enough roofs around to meet baseline power requirements, which is what these mega-projects are all about. It would be very difficult to power a single house from it's roof area in most developed countries. The real problem, of course, is that the solar panels are really only a small part of the investment required, unless you are willing to limit your electricity to only when the sun shines.

What happens when you connect all these roofs together for a netork, and someon's house burns down?