News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Solar generates fifth of global electricity on summer sol... by timschmidt on Saturday June 22, 2024 @08:10PM (#40763433)
Sure, but with a couple inches of snow on them, mine still generate power. And in areas which regularly receive snow, roof pitches are generally steep enough to encourage it to slide off else the building would suffer overloading. Worst case a push broom or squeegee with a very long handle works wonders.

Also fairly trivial to rig up a resistive heating system for melting the snow in cases where the above isn't possible. Even possible to automate it based on time of day and expected power input.

Re:Solar generates fifth of global electricity on summer sol... by magicalhippo on Saturday June 22, 2024 @08:24PM (#40763500)
> Also fairly trivial to rig up a resistive heating system for melting the snow

Couldn't you just run power through the solar cells as if they were giant LEDs? Or don't they like that?

Re:Solar generates fifth of global electricity on summer sol... by timschmidt on Saturday June 22, 2024 @08:31PM (#40763544)
It is possible to back-feed power through a solar cell such that it emits photons (or maybe just heat - I'm not entirely clear on that). But all solar panels include diodes to prevent this and provide protection from hooking them up in reverse.
Re:Solar generates fifth of global electricity on summer sol... by magicalhippo on Saturday June 22, 2024 @08:38PM (#40763595)
Ah, makes sense. As you mentioned though, easy enough to fit some thermal heating foil on the backside unless you're using bifacials.