While solar power is a leading form of renewable energy, new research suggests that changes to regional climates brought on by global warming could make areas currently considered ideal for solar power production less viable in the future.
While solar power is a leading form of renewable energy, new research suggests that changes to regional climates brought on by global warming could make areas currently considered ideal for solar power production less viable in the future.
Princeton-based researchers recently published in the journal Nature Communications the first study to assess the day-to-day reliability of solar energy under climate change. The team used satellite data and climate models to project how sunlight reaching the ground would be affected as warmer global temperatures alter the dynamics and consistency of Earth’s atmosphere.
Their study found that higher surface temperatures — and the resulting increase in the amount of moisture, aerosols and particulates in the atmosphere — may result in an overall decrease in solar radiation and an uptick in the number of cloudy days. Hot, arid regions such as the Middle East and the American Southwest — considered among the highest potential producers of solar energy — were most susceptible to greater fluctuations in sunlight, the researchers found.
Read more at: Princeton University
Hot, arid regions may see greater fluctuations in sunlight as the climate changes, the researchers reported. They used satellite data and climate model outputs to evaluate the intermittency of solar radiation and the reliability of photovoltaic energy under future climate conditions. They found that arid areas (pink) were more likely to experience a decrease in average solar radiation -- and thus the reliability of solar power -- in January (top) and July (bottom). (Photo Credit: Jun Yin, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technolog)
