I'm not sure if anyone said this already and the comments but this should be a great idea for the Hoover dam and or whatever the damn's name is over by Lake Powell. There are almost dead pool at this point.
this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2026
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Maintenance access looks like a pain in the ass, and I would wonder about possible issues with snow/ice buildup and load limits, but otherw8se this is a nice use of the space.
Had a friend who did maintenance work on cell phone towers. Where some people see danger, others see a fat paycheck.
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Got news about snow and ice in Switzerland: it happens in the valleys during winter just as heavy as it ever does at the higher elevations.
Maybe they have to clear it off the dam anyway, so the cost is sort of amortized?
And/or maybe the steep angle helps?
I mention it because that concrete looks clear of ice/snow to me.
Concrete has a lot of thermal mass. I could believe that it stays warm enough that ice can't stay on the surface, especially with a reservoir of non-frozen water behind it.
The steel brackets and aluminum panel frames will get a lot colder, especially with wind blowing around them. Basically the same principle as a bridge forming ice before the road on either side of it. An exposed metal frame with a wind chill can develop ice even if the average temperature around it is above freezing.
Hmm... and that makes me wonder if the solar array bolted to the concrete surface acts like a heatsink? That would be an interesting unintended consequence.
I could believe that it stays warm enough that ice can’t stay on the surface
When the sun shines, yes. After 30 days of straight overcast? Not so much.
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Splendid! It solves the issue with south-facing panels overheating.
I'm confused by the albedo argument. The reflected light would need to reach the solar panels, but the panels are facing up. So how could a surface of ice/snow be sufficiently facing the solar panels to reflect a significant amount of sun light towards the panels?
Edit: nevermind, using my hands to draw imaginary angles, I've concluded it can work with a facing normal white slope for some sun position if the orientation is favorable.
Hold out your hand flat, palm facing straight up. Now tilt it at any angle without going perpendicular to the ground, but let's just use 45 degrees for example.
With your hand tilted backwards just a bit, but still facing upward overall, look across the room and you can predict where you would need to squat down to see the palm of your hand even if you were on the ground.
This shows light can travel in a straight line from that spot on the ground to the palm of your hand even though your palm is still facing upward overall, albeit at an angle of 45 degrees (and there is a spot on the ground that works at any angle, but the spot is farther away if the hand is tilted less).
if you look at the picture in the article, you can see they’re not angled up very far. They’re actually almost vertical.
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