Dr Rui Song from the Department of Physics led the study.
New research led by the University of Oxford and University College London (UCL) has revealed that pollution from coal-fired power plants is significantly reducing the energy output of solar photovoltaic (solar PV) installations, particularly where these are expanding side by side. The findings have been published in Nature Sustainability.
The new study, led by Dr Rui Song from the Department of Physics, pictured above, mapped and assessed more than 140,000 solar PV installations worldwide using satellite data. By combining this with atmospheric data on air pollution, the researchers calculated how much sunlight is lost and how this reduces electricity generation. They found that aerosols – tiny particles suspended in the air – reduced global solar electricity output by 5.8% in 2023. This is equivalent to 111 terawatt-hours (TWh) of lost energy – the amount generated by 18 medium-sized coal-fired power plants.