PV Gap

Leah Said:

If a lot of cities were to switch to solar panels as energy, would that cause a higher albedo and why?

We Answered:

It depends. In most cases, it would lower the albedo.

Albedo is the proportion of light reflected. Solar cells have very low albedo so that they don't reflect light, they absorb it and can use it to generate electricity with. Sometimes cities have low albedo (black asphalt etc), but in most cases the albedo of solar cells will be lower.

Solar cells should therefore be expected to slightly lower the albedo of a city.



In terms of the effect of global warming, you cause more global warming from burning coal and releasing CO2 that heats us up than you do from having a solar panel.

You get more immediate warming with the solar panel (since it hasn't saved any CO2 when you put it in), but over time it saves CO2 and leads to drastically reduced heating. If you want the maths behind it, feel free to email me.