Converting to solar could change the earth

We no longer have much choice. In the near future, we are all going to have to make the switch to renewable energy. For some, climate change is the main motivator. For others, it's the financial advantages and knowing that they are generating their own power. The truth is that fossil fuels will run out in less than fifty years. But even alternative energy technologies may have an impact on global climate, according to a recent study. In the study, researchers used computerized climate models to examine what would happen if the world’s entire energy supply were switched to solar. They assumed that solar panels would be located in the major desert regions of the world, where the supply of sunlight is greatest, and in urban areas, where the demand for energy is greatest.

Solar absorption and radiation

In areas covered by solar panels, less solar radiation gets absorbed by the Earth, because it gets assimilated by the solar panels (and converted to electricity) instead. Widespread installation of solar panels would decrease absorption of solar radiation by up to 19% in arid areas, the researchers found. Consequently, this has cascading effects on the climate. On a global scale, the changes from solar panel installation are insignificant compared to those predicted to occur due to greenhouse gases. However, at a regional level, some of these climatic shifts could be important.  The average temperature in desert regions would decrease by about two degrees Celsius. Desert precipitation could also decline by over 20%, largely because the presence of solar panels also diminishes cloud cover.

Desert cooling

According to the researchers’ example, this desert cooling would lead to changes in wind patterns, a shift in the direction of the jet stream, and altered precipitation levels for many localities. Much of Asia, parts of the Middle East, Australia, and the tropical Pacific would lose up to 25 centimeters of average annual rain. Instead, that precipitation would shift to Europe, the North Pacific, western North America, tropical Africa, and the southeast Indian Ocean. Regions to the East, or downwind, of desert areas covered by solar panels would also cool off by about one degree Celsius. The study presents an extreme situation: the researchers assumed that 100 percent of the land area in cities and deserts would be covered with solar panels, which isn’t really possible. According to projections,  those solar panels would generate almost 800 terawatts of power, much more than the world is likely to require. But the researchers say this sort of exercise can reveal devices underlying the climate system and help interpret the results of more realistic modeling attempts. So they also constructed a version of their model that more accurately reflects likely future demands for energy. In this scenario, solar panels would be installed across urban areas worldwide and in a portion of the Egyptian desert, covering about ten percent of the total land area devoted to solar panels in the first version of the study.

Surface temperatures

Here the patterns of surface temperature change are similar to those seen in the extreme version of the model, but much more moderate. For example, global temperature would decline by about 0.04 degrees Celsius, the researchers found. This smaller global solar grid would generate about 59 terawatts of power per year. That’s still enough to cover global demand for electricity, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated to be, at most, 45 terawatts per year by 2100.

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