Solar panels in car parks.

[ajm]

Good point, Quiksilver, but concrete and tarmac have been doing that for years. Councils could well thing again about the concreted/paving stoned area though of course this could bring up maintenance issues ...

Fully agree and before the tarmac it was just the ground - as in earth, dirt or whatever you will call it.

Whatever the surface, the sun's heat was absorbed and then re-released. If the sun's heat is absorbed but converted to electricity is it too simplistic to think that there would be an overall cooling effect, at least during the summer months?

Yes

[Quiksilver]

What happens to the panels when we have our infamous hail storms

Good point. I believe the insurance for solar panels is pretty expensive. Probably to cover that eventuality?

[Polarengineer]

Just to clarify..
Solar panels absorb light to produce electricity and not heat. Yes they will obviously get hot in the sun which in theory should help those electrons whizz about easier. The effective light is in the higher frequencies, so, Up to UV but not above. The lower Infra red band does the heating and very little electricity production. With the introduction of new materials, more and more frequencies are getting absorbed thus increasing the efficiency of these cells.