Letter: SUVs and solar panels warm planet Earth

Imagine an enormous black SUV, with all-black interior, sitting in full sun all day at the parking lot of Walmart. The hood is too hot to touch with the inside of your forearm (I tried). The interior temperature can exceed 140° F. When the sun sets all that solar heat radiates into the atmosphere, warming it, warming planet Earth.

It is the same with solar panels. At very best, 25% of sunlight is converted to electricity in a solar panel, The rest of the sun's energy, 75%, is converted to heat. When the sun sets all that solar heat radiates into the atmosphere, warming it, warming planet Earth, same as with an enormous black SUV at Walmart.

Something else about solar panels. According to an IEA Special Report titled "Solar PV Global Supply Chains", China's share in all the manufacturing stages of solar panels (such as poly-silicon, ingots, wafers, cells, and modules) exceeds 80%.

Therefore, every time we install a solar panel here in the land of the free, the home of the brave, we send more of America's wealth to the People's Republic of China.

— EJ Donmoyer, Paradise

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