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by wjmao88 747 days ago
It is more like

A. light absorbed by solar panels that eventually turn into heat

B. light absorbed by the ground which pretty much all becomes heat

I'm pretty sure B is much greater than A.

1 comments

Essentially all of it turns into heat except the part that is (immediately) reflected back into space -- and solar panels are darker than most of the (non-grassy or only sparsely grassy, and the grass is golden, not dark green or on the roof of a building) sites where solar panels are typically sited, which means they reflect less back into space. Ergo, erecting a solar panel adds heat (but again it is negligible compared to the reduction in co2 emissions).