Shading the condenser unit keeps it cooler and increases it’s efficiency and helps keeps my electricity costs down. The sail is high enough and mesh like so that it doesn’t trap the hot air. In fact it creates a slight wind tunnel effect. The shade it provides lasts during the hottest part of the day and a tree helpfully blocks the sun for the remainder. The unit is never in full sun this way. Keeping the weeds and other debris away from the unit so that it gets good airflow and cleaning the condenser every year also help with the units efficiency.
Heat rises so the plume these put out really is tall, the buoyancy of air does most of the work – put a fog machine next to it and you’ll see it reach higher than the house.
The biggest benefit here is probably the shade to the siding, I’d focus on that (read: more trees) going forward instead of a black mesh shade that will absorb more sun and radiate heat back out.
Hot AIR rises. And it can also move sideways, and both are possible with this mesh. Looks like the hot air would go up and out in 3 directions (plus through) and cooler air would be pulled in from the yard. Wouldn’t it be interesting to test it with colored smoke? Or as you said a fog machine