Is there enough sunshine in Syracuse for solar energy?
Not so much.
“I would be dubious of putting a lot of reliance into solar energy in this part of the world,” said Kevin Williams, meteorologist for WRVO-FM, a local affiliate of National Public Radio.
But Mike Kelleher, a solar researcher, takes a brighter view. He is director of renewable energy systems at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. After all, said Kelleher, “We get maybe half the solar radiation of Phoenix, Arizona.”
Questions about sunshine for solar power here got new life in recent weeks with some high-profile proposals for more solar-energy outlets in New York. On Jan, 27, 2010, Gov. David Paterson came to the ESF campus in Syracuse to announce plans for enough projects through the state of New York to generate up to 100 kilowatts of solar power. That’s enough to power 15,000 homes.And in Clay, the town board on Feb. 1, 2010, approved the controversial construction of a new 320-panel solar farm, one of the first commercial solar farms in the New York.
Solar energy continues to gain advocates in Central New York, since solar panels still generate some electricity in even low-light climates. And Syracuse is among the city’s with the least sunshine in the country.
Consider these 2009 sunshine statistics, from the National Weather Service:
- The sun shone in Syracuse about 50 percent of the time.
- Syracuse got close to 2,400 hours of sunlight.
- That compares to 2,800 hours of sunshine in San Francisco; 3,600 hours in Phoenix, Ariz.; and 4,000 hours in Yuma, Ariz., which is the nation’s sunniest city.
- In all of 2009, Syracuse had 30 days of fair weather — meaning each day had less than 38 percent of heavy clouds, no precipitation, no extremes of visibility, temperature or winds.
- It had 149 days partly cloudy with between 38 percent and 63 percent of the sky covered by clouds.
- And Syracuse suffered 186 cloudy days with 88 percent or more of the sky is covered by clouds.
- That’s 365 days — or 100 percent of the year — with at least 38 percent of the sky covered by clouds.
Of Syracuse’s climate, WRVO radio’s meteorologist Williams paints a gray picture. The Central New York region, Williams said, is the nation’s second-cloudiest metropolitan area, after the Pacific Northwest. During the winter months, Central New York averages about 30 to 35 percent of the possible sun, Williams said.
“Remember, the sun is above the horizon for something like nine or 10 hours, and about two-thirds of that time, the skies are covered up with clouds,” Williams said. “So you’re getting three hours of sunlight, out of 24. That’s not such a good ratio there.”
For much of the winter months, Williams said, the skies are covered with clouds from Lake Ontario. That’s 40 miles northwest of Syracuse. When cold air passes over warmer lake water, the temperature difference causes an increase in humidity. And that leads to condensation and clouds. Those are the infamous “lake-effect” clouds that turn so much of Syracuse’s sky gray between October and April.
That makes winter the least efficient time of the year for solar heating, Williams said.
But even with all the gray winter, say advocates of solar energy, solar farms can still generate a significant amount of electricity for Central New York. The solar farms use sophisticated technology to amp up the sun’s power, said solar researcher Kelleher of ESF. The solar farm in Clay, for example, will use a new thin-film solar technology that converts both direct sunlight and ambient light into electricity.
Even covered by a thin layer of snow, the solar panels generate about two percent of their maximum output of electricity, Kelleher said. And on cloudy days, the solar panels generate at about 30 to 50 percent of maximum output, Kelleher said, depending on how much cloud cover there is.
“But Syracuse still gets a significant amount of sun for six months out of the year,” Kelleher said.
For now, the production of solar energy is fairly low, experts say, because of the high cost of solar compared to traditional energy sources like coal.
At the Syracuse Center for Excellence, Suresh Santanam is the deputy executive director — and its resident expert of renewable energy. The Center specializes in sustainability in built and urban environments. One of Santanam’s jobs is to study the comparative costs of energy sources.
Nuclear power costs up to five cents a kilowatt-hour, he said. But then there’s the additional cost for storing radioactive waste. Coal costs up to four cents a kilowatt-hour, with the added cost of potential global warming and climate change. Solar panels generate electricity at a cost of about 10 to 20 cents a kilowatt-hour. And generating solar power does not create any waste, Santanam said.
“So, when you think about solar,” Santanam said, “In the long run, you are essentially relying on nature giving you the energy and you don’t have to do anything more.”
(Jennifer Sheppard is a graduate student in magazine, newspaper and online journalism.)
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