New House Thermal

The Treasure Coast Soaring Club will soon have a new house thermal. Florida Power And Light is in the process of building a 400 acre solar power plant within 3/4 mile from our airport. Heat from this type of farm should make for a great house thermal. Anyone out there with experience flying over solar farms? Thanks, Bob

I tried the solar panel farm between Jean and Primm, NV during one of
the ground launch weekends off of Roach Dry Lake and found nothing
though that could have simply been due to the airmass that day. I did
thermal nicely over one of those solar plants which directs solar energy
onto a tower containing, I think, liquid sodium which is used to heat
water to steam and thence to spin generators. Glad I didn't get low there...

On 6/26/2017 2:23 AM, wrote:
The Treasure Coast Soaring Club will soon have a new house thermal. Florida Power And Light is in the process of building a 400 acre solar power plant within 3/4 mile from our airport. Heat from this type of farm should make for a great house thermal. Anyone out there with experience flying over solar farms? Thanks, Bob

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Dan, 5J

On Monday, June 26, 2017 at 1:23:32 AM UTC-7, wrote:
The Treasure Coast Soaring Club will soon have a new house thermal. Florida Power And Light is in the process of building a 400 acre solar power plant within 3/4 mile from our airport. Heat from this type of farm should make for a great house thermal. Anyone out there with experience flying over solar farms? Thanks, Bob

One would think it should but it's hit and miss like most spots that should or could.....:-)

Le lundi 26 juin 2017 16:21:43 UTC+2, 6PK a écritÂ*:
On Monday, June 26, 2017 at 1:23:32 AM UTC-7, wrote:
The Treasure Coast Soaring Club will soon have a new house thermal. Florida Power And Light is in the process of building a 400 acre solar power plant within 3/4 mile from our airport. Heat from this type of farm should make for a great house thermal. Anyone out there with experience flying over solar farms? Thanks, Bob

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"

On Mon, 26 Jun 2017 07:21:39 -0700, 6PK wrote:

On Monday, June 26, 2017 at 1:23:32 AM UTC-7,
wrote:
The Treasure Coast Soaring Club will soon have a new house thermal.
Florida Power And Light is in the process of building a 400 acre solar
power plant within 3/4 mile from our airport. Heat from this type of
farm should make for a great house thermal. Anyone out there with
experience flying over solar farms? Thanks, Bob

One would think it should but it's hit and miss like most spots that
should or could.....:-)

Surely that depends on the overall reflectivity of the solar farm
averaged over its area and over all wavelengths: if its less reflective
than the surrounding area then it will be warmer. But that is only when
its not generating. If the system is generating and exporting electricity
that reduces the energy available for warming the system, so its average
temperature should be reduced as a result.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

On Monday, June 26, 2017 at 11:43:29 AM UTC-4, Tango Whisky wrote:
Well, there is an issue with physics ... ;-)

Really now Bert.
This is R.A.S. - best not to annoy the inmates with facts...

On Monday, June 26, 2017 at 4:23:32 AM UTC-4, wrote:
The Treasure Coast Soaring Club will soon have a new house thermal. Florida Power And Light is in the process of building a 400 acre solar power plant within 3/4 mile from our airport. Heat from this type of farm should make for a great house thermal. Anyone out there with experience flying over solar farms? Thanks, Bob

PVT solar panels produce electricity and heat at the same time. It would be very unusual that a 400 acre PVT facility would not produce a constant boomer during solar absorption.

Sorry to disappoint, but I have a glider in South Africa and fly regularly over the Letsatsi solar park which is a 247 acre solar farm north of Bloemfontein SA (on the Dealsville Road). It was built 3 years ago but really doesn't contribute much to thermal activity in the area.

What I have found does work (both in SA and around the world) are the big metal grain silos found on most large farms which (especially when full) get very hot and seem to consistently focus thermals either right over or just downwind of them. That's where I want to be when I am low and scratching.

ROY

On Monday, June 26, 2017 at 4:23:32 AM UTC-4, wrote:
The Treasure Coast Soaring Club will soon have a new house thermal. Florida Power And Light is in the process of building a 400 acre solar power plant within 3/4 mile from our airport. Heat from this type of farm should make for a great house thermal. Anyone out there with experience flying over solar farms? Thanks, Bob

lets make this somewhat simple, the temp of the solar panes on top of the hangar today was in excess of 115 degrees F. I measured the temp reading with a heat gun. The panels number about 16, and the output is a max 8kw. I don't have the output capacity of this project, but I would guess that 100 acres of solar farm could produce 20 MW therefore 400 acres would be 80MW. I would think that if those panels produced the same amount of heat as the ones on the hangar roof and heat travels up, I would assume that we would get some thermal activity from the project.

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!


--
GC