American Chemical Society Weekly PressPac -- April 15, 2009

Murphy's study found that aerosols reduce direct sunlight – the kind that casts shadows – much more than total sunlight. Each one percent reduction in the Earth's sunlight due to aerosols will cause a four to 10 percent loss in output from concentrating solar power applications. He notes, however, that flat solar hot water and photovoltaic panels — which utilize both direct and diffuse (scattered) sunlight — will have smaller performance losses than concentrating solar collectors.

"One consequence of deliberate enhancement of the stratospheric aerosol layer would be a significant reduction in the efficiency of solar power generation systems," Murphy concludes. "Any cooling of the Earth that relies on light scattering, including tropospheric aerosol scattering and increased cloudiness, by particles will also result in reductions in direct sunlight that are several times the reductions in total sunlight." - JS

ARTICLE #2 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Effect of Stratospheric Aerosols on Direct Sunlight and Implications for Concentrating Solar Power"

DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE: http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/es802206b

CONTACT:
Daniel M. Murphy, Ph.D.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Boulder, Colo. 80305
Phone: (303) 497-5640
Fax: (303) 497-5373
Email:

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ARTICLE #3