Solar power could have their future in the colder regions of the plane

When ordering someone to mention the geographical area privileged for solar power generation, it is common thinking in the warm deserts, there where are some of the of the world's largest solar farms. However, surprisingly, a new study concludes that some of the landscapes more cold in the world - including the Himalayas, the Andes mountains and up the icy lands of Antarctica- could become the next "Saudi Arabia" of solar energy.

The research in question appears in ACS Environmental Science & Technologymagazine and was in charge of Kotaro Kawajiri and his team of colleagues. These scientists explain that the potential for generation of electricity with renewable solar energy depends largely on the geographic location to install a solar power plant. And arid and semi-arid, zones with much Sun and long time exposure have been recognized as good places for these purposes. So far, nothing new.

However, the scientists point out that, as a result of the scarcity of available data at the global level related to how influences the climate, there are still gaps in the knowledge of the best geographical locations for the production of solar energy. To extend that knowledge, they developed a technique that allows them to estimate the global potential of solar energy with the data that are available today.
The technique takes into account the effects of temperature on performance of solar cells. In the next stages of this study are also considered other variables, such as the losses during the transmission and impact of snowfall.

As it was expected, found that many of the hot regions, such as the Southwest Desert EE.UU., are ideal places for the installation of large conglomerates of solar panels. However, he also found that many cooler regions that are located on a high-altitude receive a significant amount of light solar.
So much so that in these high mountain areas, the potential to produce solar power is even greater than in some desert areas. Kawajiri and his colleagues found, for example, to the Himalayan mountains (including Mount Everest) could be an ideal place to install solar farms which could generate much electricity for the economy in rapid expansion of the People's Republic of China.

Other areas that were potentially promising for solar power generation in cold conditions were the mountains of the Cordillera de los Andes and even the cold - indeed - frozen land of Antarctica. We will have to see what conclusions get futures and most exhaustive analysis to be carried out to adjust the model, and above all, what says the reality in live, beyond theory.






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