A 100MW solar farm in Texas will mount panels directly on the ground

Re:A 100MW solar farm in Texas will mount panels directly on... by t3pfaff on Friday December 09, 2022 @07:41PM (#33928461)

> This is true for a single panel. But the amount of sunlight which hits an acre of land is constant. If the land is 100% covered with panels, the panels will collect 100% of the available sunlight.

That is not true from my understanding. The increased solar angle of incidence effects how much of the energy reflects back into the sky. Having more panels next to it without a gap won't change that. Yes you can fit more panels in the same area without putting them on an angle but they will be quite a bit less efficient because more light will be reflecting back up per sqft of panel which is what matters cost wise.

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Re:A 100MW solar farm in Texas will mount panels directly on... by sacred_numbers on Friday December 09, 2022 @08:25PM (#33928793)

There is a small loss of efficiency (<2%) at extreme angles, but it is not too significant[1]

[1]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6611928/#:~:tex....

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Re:A 100MW solar farm in Texas will mount panels directly on... by nick4780167 on Friday December 09, 2022 @08:16PM (#33928720)

The anti reflective layers and texture on the panels are usually pretty good, such that then reflection is less than the area loss due to the angle.

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Re:A 100MW solar farm in Texas will mount panels directly on... by tuatoru on Friday December 09, 2022 @09:26PM (#33929166)

Yes, one of the many areas of improvement of PV modules in the last couple of years has been reducing reflections from the surface of the glass and from the glass-cell boundary in panels. Also changed cell technology (n-TOPCon) helps with reflections and recombination within the cells.

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