At 05:01 27 June 2017, wrote:
On 27/06/2017 01:43, Tango Whisky wrote:

Well, there is an issue with physics ... ;-) A good part of
the sunlight
is absorbed by the solar panels and transformed into
electricity, and *not*
into heat.

Bert "TW"

No. Only a miniscule amount of the sunlight is turned into
electricity.
At this level, (electricity out / total solar energy in) the
efficiency
of PV panels is *buggerall*.

The solar farm will probably not only not produce thermals,
it will
increase your energy costs. Shift to France where they
have cheap
nuclear AND you can go gliding in the alps!

Yes: you can fly in the Alps in France.
No: France does not have "cheap nuclear" as will become
clear when the real costs of decommissioning all this nuclear
junk is added to the equation. The real cost will be bourn by
the French (possibly EU) taxpayer; the actual electricity price
to the consumer will still look "cheap". Oh and in an attempt
to look "Green" the French heavily subsidise solar, just like
the US and UK so we're paying for that too. The real
background to the current French nuclear power generation
was the French desire to have the bomb.
Lastly I've never found the many solar arrays around in the
Southern Alps to be especially good thermal sources: in a
flat land scenario they might well be useful.
My view is that Earth is already Nuclear powered, it's called
the Sun and at 93 million miles away it's exactly in the right
place.