[upsidesinclude]

Abnormal temperatures and lack of humidity caused by the heat island effect of blacktop for miles and miles in every direction.

Adoption of greenspace and far more solar panels in Phoenix could significantly cut down on this phenomena.

[AlotOfReading]

Have you seen metro Phoenix from higher elevation? It's far more green than the surrounding desert already. Further, PV installations worsen the heat island effect and Phoenix is one of the leading cities in the US for installation numbers.

[pengaru]

Shading the ground beneath the solar panels should have a localized cooling effect, since the panels don't have as much thermal mass.

[AlotOfReading]

They do provide shade, but the panels inherently absorb solar energy and heat up. That heat doesn't have anywhere to go except the air and the urban heat island.

[upsidesinclude]

The other comments pretty well address both of those points.

I'd be glad to see more information as regards the conditions which lead to that conclusion

[midoridensha]

>Adoption of greenspace and far more solar panels in Phoenix could significantly cut down on this phenomena.

Well, they do have lots of green grass yards needing tons of irrigation....

[upsidesinclude]

Completely agree, xeriscaping is far more beneficial. There are lots of natural desert grasses, lawn isn't one of them

[avalys]

What do solar panels have to do with it? What color are solar panels? Do they produce less heat island effect than "blacktop"?

[wlesieutre]

They don’t reflect a lot of light which ordinarily means a material is absorbing all the energy and turning it to heat, but in the case of solar panels you’re turning maybe 20% of it into electricity instead

[mirashii]

Solar panels have an albedo of ~0.3. Asphalt around ~0.05. That makes it 6x better in terms of heat reflected.

[klyrs]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo#Terrestrial_albedo

Your figure for asphalt seems off. I think the more pertinent comparison would be between solar cells and undisurbed land, which have similar albedo. But thermal mass is probably even more important: ground beneath solar panels receive less thermal radiation than unshaded ground, and while solar cells get hot during the day they cool down quickly at night. Simplifying greatly, they should re-emit about half of the heat they capture to the sky, and half to the ground.

[midoridensha]

>I think the more pertinent comparison would be between solar cells and undisurbed land, which have similar albedo.

No, that's a terrible comparison. We're talking about Phoenix here: the whole place is basically covered in asphalt, either roads or parking lots. There's no "undisturbed land" there at all.

[pvaldes]

They can be used to power a fridge