Is There a Point Where the Number of Solar Panels Could Affect the Amount of Energy for Heating the Atmosphere?

[mike Meehan]

Thinking about solar panels and going from the sublime to the ridiculous, is there a stage whereby the number of solar panels absorbing the energy from the sun could affect the amount of energy being absorbed by the atmosphere?

I would have thought that at today's usage the effect would be minimul, but say, if we were to cover 10% of earth's surface with solar panels, would this have an affect?

I am thinking along the lines of the principal that you can't have your cake and eat it and any energy taken by the solar panels would mean that much less for the atmosphere.

Edited November 17, 2012 by mike Meehan

[Backtrack]

No not really. By putting a solar panel on a roof you're collecting energy that would of otherwise just gone to waste or been absorbed ready to be radiated back into space come nightfall.

If you was to put a solar panel on every roof in the UK, I think there would be many benefits without it effecting the atmosphere/climate.

[songster]

Short answer: Your question violates conservation of energy.

Long answer: To a first approximation, all energy ends up as heat once it's been used. All the solar panel does is move that heat: rather than heating the desert soil, it heats the air around your house, or around your car, or wherever else the generated electricity is actually used. The only way your question makes sense is if the energy was absorbed and then never used - like a plant absorbing it, storing it as biomass and the biomass then getting fossilised as coal.

If anything, solar panels would fractionally increase the proportion of incoming energy that gets absorbed, because solar panels tend to be pretty good at absorbing sunlight (i.e. low albedo). That's what they're for. This effect would of course be offset by the reduction in planetary insulation due to lowered CO2 emissions.