this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2026
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So if nuclear and solar are heat sensitive, how do you power ACs during a heatwave that lasts a month?
Edit: look people, I just heard that solar panels are affected by heat, I'm not saying it as it is an unbreakable truth. If you know it to be otherwise then share it.
For Pete's sake no need to be so butt hurt for a question.
Solar is heat sensitive? I mean yes it operates at sub optimal conditions, but it still operates also during summer solar energy per m2 is higher due to more optimal earth tilt than during winter months.
So solar panel operating at 15% of 100W absorbed produces 15W in summer. Same panel in winter operating at 20% capacity of 80W in winter makes 16W. Yes summer is lower output, but by not that much. And if it's not heatwave conditions it's even better.
Anyway back to the main point, there solar panels operating at 48 degrees right now that I just visited this month.
Completely agree, saying that solar is heat sensitive when talking about not being able to power ACs is pretty far out there.
Adding to what you said, ambient temperature only has a slight impact on solar's efficiency. Solar's efficiency usually mainly goes down due to self-heating which is due to higher irradiance. So in some sense they are less efficient because they generate more power.
However your example numbers are way off, solar panels generate much more peak power during summer than during winter, they aren't close to being similar (depending on lattitude, but I guess that's a given when talking about "summer" and "winter").
And the other part that should not be overlooked is that there tends to be some correlation between hot weather and long sunshine, which can also be seen in the plot. So not only is peak power of solar higher during the time when heatwaves are more likely, they also generate power longer.
So if I put panels at home they won't let me hanging if heat outside goes up, cool.
Solar is not heat sensitive, for many reasons but ultimately it comes back to two major ones 1. Solar is efficient at any scale so infrastructure bottlenecks and vulnerabilities are a non-issue and 2. There are no "moving parts" in solar, so heat extremes have less mechanical impact. No steam is being generated in traditional solar.
Toronto downtown is 75% cooled in summer by cold lake water. Since 2004.
I heard Paris is also looking at using river water to control temperatures which I find quite cool.