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

--
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 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 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

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.

Le mardi 27 juin 2017 07:02:56 UTC+2, a écritÂ*:
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!

Well, physics doesn't seem to be part of your world. Today's photovoltaic solar panels run at an efficiency of about 20%. The definition of efficiency is electric power produced, divided by incident solar power. These 20% of the incident solar power are not available for heating.

And if you call nuclear power "cheap", economics does seem to bother you either...

As for the French Alps (where you see solar farms popping up everywhere) - that's where I fly most of the time.

On Tue, 27 Jun 2017 02:11:21 -0700, Tango Whisky wrote:

Well, physics doesn't seem to be part of your world. Today's
photovoltaic solar panels run at an efficiency of about 20%. The
definition of efficiency is electric power produced, divided by incident
solar power. These 20% of the incident solar power are not available for
heating.

Indeed. There's a smallish solar panel farm installed across the road
from where I fly. I haven't noticed any thermals (or Cu forming) above
it.

OTOH many years ago I got a 600 ft climb late in a cloudy, still, summer
afternoon from a stationary 100m diameter patch of sunlight on an
otherwise shaded ploughed field. That was in an SZD Junior.


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

On 27/06/2017 19:11, Tango Whisky wrote:
Le mardi 27 juin 2017 07:02:56 UTC+2, a écrit :
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!

Well, physics doesn't seem to be part of your world. Today's photovoltaic solar panels run at an efficiency of about 20%. The definition of efficiency is electric power produced, divided by incident solar power. These 20% of the incident solar power are not available for heating.

And if you call nuclear power "cheap", economics does seem to bother you either...

As for the French Alps (where you see solar farms popping up everywhere) - that's where I fly most of the time.

Physics and economics are both a good part of my world. You're just
sniffy because I see it differently from you.

Efficiency from solar panels is actually about 15-16% at best and when
new. And of course it's hard to keep those panels facing the sun the
whole 24 hours and the output is also *buggerall* in a lot of places for
half the year as well. Overall? *Miniscule* is a good word.

Where your physics - and economics - fall apart is when seeing in the
dark and not freezing at night is factored in. Then the coal or oil
fired power stations - which would be both cheap and bloody efficient
during the day as well - really come into their own and make it clear
that the PV panels are a just a first world sop to a warped sense of
morality, defective understanding of atmospheric science and gullibility
in the face of mass media hype...

....and yes, I know they're popping up all over, but lots of people being
stupid doesn't lessen the degree of each one's stupidity.
--
GC