Would solar energy have been viable during the extinction of the dinosaurs?

Question

I've been imagining a world where several coincidental factors drastically reduce the temperature of the world, leading to global cooling. Lots of snow may be involved, but I imagine there would be areas with frequent clear skies.

One of the factors is the impact of a large meteor, which triggers several major volcanic eruptions, similar to the event which extinguished the dinosaurs. What would a civilization need to do in order to power their cities using solar energy? If, for example, an advanced race coexisted with dinosaurs, would they be forced to turn towards other forms of energy? Or would they be able to keep their houses warm and lit while using solar panels?

Answer 1

Probably not. One of the big factors that caused the K-T extinction was a near-complete cessation of photosynthesis, which causes most land plants and phytoplankton to die off and cause the food webs to collapse outside of rivers, which can function on decaying matter. Exactly how long isn't clear, I've heard photosynthesis may have been restricted for as much as a century, but these studies seem to suggest a more reasonable estimate is about two years. If there isn't enough sunlight to engage in photosynthesis (the studies suggest that during the day things would be about as bright as a moonlit night), there probably isn't enough to run a solar panel.

Unless your society has two years worth of fossil fuels, nuclear fuel, or geothermal energy saved up (or something similar), their society will fall apart due to lack of power. Not to mention additional damage due to snow covering solar panels, or infrastructure being destroyed as people fight over the few remaining sources of power.

A bigger issue you would be facing is food. It took hundreds of years before plant life returned to its former glory, and for the first few decades following the impact all that grew were plants. Most of the big animals eventually died due to starvation in the oceans and on land. So long term your society might starve unless it has a lot of food saved up.

Answer 2

No

Your solar panel can't put out more than a trickle, estimates hover around 20% of normal solar irradiance reaching the surface during the impact winter. This lasted from months to years, likely at least a few years.

You will need another source of energy for anything except powering a few sparse lights. But what can you use? Hydroelectric dams may function but expect large scale upsets of rain fall patterns and volcanic dust mixed with river water will do a lot of damage to turbines. Wind power will not work ash particles will tear the turbines apart ion weeks if they are spinning. You are basically limited to geothermal, nuclear, or burning something. And they will need a lot of power just to grow food, likely in enclosed greenhouses lit by artificial lights.

If you civilization is in North America they are completely screwed, the impact angle sprayed burning ash and debris across the continent, nearly everything that could burn did, Massive hurricanes would have been common due to temperature differentials. A popular debate among paleontologists is how anything survived in North America.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/97JE01743

Answer 3

Let's consider a timeline of Chixulub

Here is my source

On impact, the research found, the Chicxulub asteroid — which was more than 6 miles wide — sparked wildfires that stretched for hundreds of miles, triggered a mile-high tsunami, and released billions of tons of sulfur into the atmosphere. That gaseous haze blocked the sun, cooling the Earth and dooming the dinosaurs.

The authors estimated that the asteroid's power was equivalent to 10 billion of the atomic bombs used in World War II.

"Effectively within 1,500 kilometers you would have seen very little before being incinerated," he said.

Dinosaurs weren't the only creatures that went extinct after Chicxulub hit. Flying pterosaurs and marine predators like mosasaurs and plesiosaurs also disappeared, along with 75% of life on the planet.

According to Gulick's team, the impact vaporized sulfur-rich rocks, releasing a haze of gaseous sulfur into the air that blotted out the sun and cooled the planet.

"The Earth would likely no longer look like the familiar blue marble from space," he added, "and it would take perhaps as long as two decades to clear again fully."

Conclusion

Your solar-dependent civilization is screwed. If they are in the right place (a story-dependent condition), then they would survive the damage due to the initial impact. However, the global cloud lasting up to 20 years that blocked out so much of the sun that 75% of life on the planet (that's A LOT OF LIFE) died would mean your people are completely screwed.

The problem is that nothing is perfect (without violating the laws of thermodynamics). Which means that anything that blocks the sun such that 75% of all life dies will easily (even trivially) stop all pre-existing panels (and, IMO, all solar panels) from operating. Yup, they're screwed.

Unless they do the logical thing and use nuclear energy instead.

Engineering note: Solar and wind power may be politically popular, but political popularity doesn't solve problems in useful ways. Solar and wind are only pieces in a much bigger puzzle. Combined with hydroelectric, geothermal, nuclear — and, as backups when everything goes south (like when a Chicxulub-sized impact occurs), coal, natural gas, and chemical energies — they provide consistent power with the least amount of environmental damage even when the worst of emergencies occur.

If you want proof of this, consider all the failures that brought Texas to its knees during the winter of 2020-21, which included the failure of solar and wind (among a great many other failures). In fact, Texas is a great example of what happens when politics get in the way of sound engineering decisions, which must of necessity include redundancies and backups.

Answer 4

As others have pointed out, no sunlight reaching the surface of the planet means no solar power.

I'd like to nerd this out a bit further, though. If your society switches to Space-based Solar Power technology, they might just make it. SBSP relies on satellites collecting solar power in space and then beaming that energy to receptor plants on the planet, not necessarily as visible light.

The atmosphere of the Earth is less opaque to radio waves than it is to even visible light. If the dust particles from the impact are also translucent to radio, you can use SBSP.

Answer 5

The asteroid landed in the perfect place to blot out the sun, and as little energy is reaching the Earth from the sun, no, solar panels wouldn’t work.