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Heat in solar panels...


Externet

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Good day.  Clearing the snow off my panels on he roof as it will be sunny the next week but still under 0oC and I wanted them generating, got curious...
Sun does warm up solar panels, no doubt. Ambient too. But is panels heating only product of the solar radiation + environment or the panels themselves add warmth by the current produced ?

In other words; a solar panel that has reached its temperature plateau under the sun while disconnected (no current flowing); it will increase its temperature when connected to a load and current flows, right ?
 
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I've never noticed any. For example, the snow doesn't melt off; it falls off if the incline is steep enough.

Here is one site I found off the bat - uncritically. Seems plausible.

Quote

Instead, solar panels absorb heat that otherwise would have been passed onto your roof.https://news.energysage.com/keeping-cool-with-solar-do-solar-panels-cool-your-roof/

 

We have had a little trouble keeping the batteries charging efficiently, even with grid hydro top-up, as they're in an unheated storage room.  

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11 hours ago, Externet said:

In other words; a solar panel that has reached its temperature plateau under the sun while disconnected (no current flowing); it will increase its temperature when connected to a load and current flows, right ?

No, it should cool off. Energy is conserved.

When disconnected, all of the absorbed photon energy goes into heating the panel. If the photons are generating electricity (at some efficiency, and all else is the same) this energy is not available to contribute to heating it. i.e. some of the thermal energy of the light is now doing work, so there is less thermal energy. 

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