Is it possible to quantify the increasing impact of solar panels as well (on the decreasing reflection)? What % reduction of solar reflection is estimated due to the advent of solar energy or this is still quite negligible?
I haven’t seen any studies on this but my guess is it’s negligible. Ie the increase in solar panels compared to the decrease in cloud cover in 2023 I would assume is small.
Installed solar energy globally is estimated at 1400GW which @ 150 watts per m2 would mean 1.4e+10 m2 of world surface covered with panels. Given the Earth Surface area is 5.1e+14 m2 so that equates to 0.002% surface usage for solar generation (still offset by a factor of 10 though).
Is it possible to quantify the increasing impact of solar panels as well (on the decreasing reflection)? What % reduction of solar reflection is estimated due to the advent of solar energy or this is still quite negligible?
I haven’t seen any studies on this but my guess is it’s negligible. Ie the increase in solar panels compared to the decrease in cloud cover in 2023 I would assume is small.
Installed solar energy globally is estimated at 1400GW which @ 150 watts per m2 would mean 1.4e+10 m2 of world surface covered with panels. Given the Earth Surface area is 5.1e+14 m2 so that equates to 0.002% surface usage for solar generation (still offset by a factor of 10 though).