Changes to regional climates brought on by global warming could make areas such as the American Southwest that are currently considered ideal for solar power production less viable in the future, a Princeton-based study suggests. Higher surface temperatures could lead to more moisture, aerosols and particulates in the atmosphere, which would result in less solar radiation and more cloudy days. The study is the first to assess the day-to-day reliability of solar energy under climate change.
Professor Amilcare Porporato in CEE and the High Meadows Environmental Institute and Jun Yin, a past CEE postdoc, had their paper, “Impacts of solar intermittency on future photovoltaic reliability,” highlighted by editors at Nature Communications as one of a small number of recent studies and articles published in the journal that are particularly interesting or important in the field of Applied Physics and Mathematics. Published in October with co-author Annalisa Molini at Khalifa University, the paper found that climate change could make solar-power production in hot, arid areas less reliable in the future as higher surface temperatures lead to more moisture, aerosols and particulates in the atmosphere. The study was the first to assess the day-to-day reliability of solar energy under climate change and was featured on the Princeton University homepage.
