Why Solar Panels Dip in Delhi’s Fog but Work So Well in Ladakh’s ‘Cold’ Sun?

On a foggy January morning in Delhi, many rooftop solar owners open their monitoring apps and feel a familiar anxiety. The units generated overnight look disappointingly low. Messages start flying on housing society WhatsApp groups: “Are the panels not working?”, “Does solar fail in winter?” Similar doubts surface in Shimla after a snowfall, or in Leh, where the sun feels piercingly bright but the air is bitterly cold. How can solar power work when it’s freezing? And why does it struggle in cities that are technically warmer? The answer lies in a mix of physics, geography, and something far...