Is Solar Energy Really Green And Sustainable?
Updated: Aug 24, 2021
Is solar energy really zero-emissions, clean and sustainable? How much has it grown over the last years? What’s wrong about it? Let’s find out.
Solar Energy And Photovoltaic Panels Today
As you probably know already, solar energy is one type of renewable energy, i.e., an energy source that is generated using natural resources which replenish quicker than the rate at which it is consumed.
In 2017, for the first time in the world over two-thirds of the global net electricity growth of 178GW was renewable. And within all of these renewables, solar photovoltaics (PV) capacity of growing was the most. In China alone, it was 97GW! The US, Japan, India Europe, and China all are pushing solar energy growth in renewables as it provides improved economic strength for the countries.
But does all this development and growth of the solar energy industry mean it is clean or green to produce?
What makes solar energy bad?
It’s not very humble to say solar energy is bad, at least not when compared with other types of energies that are powered by fossil fuels. Yet, solar does have some downsides which are worth analyzing. To start with solar energy is definitely not zero emissions, clean, or 100% green. Though the solar panels work from the sun's rays the secret lies with the lifecycle of the solar panels. They do release some kind of CO2 or CO2eq during manufacturing and after their useful life is over.
Producing solar PV panels requires minerals like copper, nickel, cadmium, and other elements like silver ( ~ 27 billion kg for solar purposes only). Silicon which is the base element of a solar cell, and is also at risk of having a demand that outstrips supply today and in the future. Another problem is, though if we have multiple resources over the world, the mining activities themselves are not well managed and countries on government level break rules to generate maximum profit! One example is in Chile where toxic waste is not responsibly taken care of. Add this to other environmental impacts like soil erosion or mercury contamination then mining activities can pollute the air, water and soil. This in turn harms the local biodiversity and human life too. The mitigation of these and other risks of these activities depends on the local governance practices.
After the useful life of solar panels is over, the question of disposing off the solar panels efficiently is another task. The glass of the solar panel can be 95% reused, while all external metal parts are used for re-molding cell frames. The remaining materials in the PV cells are treated at 500°C in a thermal processing unit to ease up the binding between the cell elements. In this extreme heat, the encapsulating plastic evaporates, leaving behind silicon cells ready to be further processed. The supporting technology ensures that not even this plastic is wasted, therefore it is reused as a heat source for further thermal processing.
After the thermal treatment, the green hardware is physically separated. 80% of these can readily be reused, while the remainder is further refined. Silicon particles or wafers are etched away using acid. Broken wafers are further melted to be used again for manufacturing new silicon modules, resulting in an 85% recycling rate of the silicon material. All this process further adds more air, water pollution to the environment!
What Are The Real Advantages Of Solar Energy for Earth then?
Despite the costs of producing solar panels, according to one study, after 5.23 years of generating electricity, they will make up for the energy used to produce the system itself. Moreover, solar panels have their financial payback within 15.3 to 34.4 years, depending on the rate of renewable energy feed-in-tariff applied.
In addition, electricity production by photovoltaic solar panels is more sustainable than electricity powered by fossil fuels. Though these calculations depend on the region of manufacturing since, for instance, the carbon footprint of a panel produced in China can be up to twice as big compared to panels produced in Europe.
Solar PV technologies and Solar plants are small and can be used anywhere in the world with relatively low operation and maintenance costs compared to the huge fossil fuel ones. Regarding the problems around the solar panel's end of life, as the industry grows recycling sites will grow too and current industry players will likely feel encouraged to find new solutions to improve the efficiency of their operations. New industries will spawn up who would come up with more innovative solutions to recycle the solar panels. Another good news is that some minerals, like aluminum, lead, and copper require less energy to be recycled when compared to primary extraction.
To learn more, you can see the following video about how solar panels are manufactured.
Conclusion
Solar energy is not perfect and manufacturing photovoltaic panels is energy-consuming and requires finite Earth minerals that have harsh extraction impacts.
Panels also only produce electricity on-peak hours, i.e., when they get over 1000 watts of photovoltaic power. This means solar panels can produce electricity from an average of 5 hours (India) to 6,5 hours a day, even if it’s sunny all day.
It’s also a good idea to have solar PV technology reducing its carbon emission by powering mines and mineral processing sites, as in Australia or South Africa. Tighter regulations and good governance practices are also fundamental to reducing the risks associated with mining activities. Furthermore, the development of the recycling industry for all types of minerals is also a crucial step in minimizing the impacts of mining and, therefore, the solar energy industries.
In the end, solar energy is easier to set up anywhere in the world and it is becoming increasingly more affordable. For the companies and nations who want to fulfill their GHG reduction promises, it is important to keep growing their sources of renewable energy and keep creating incentives for solar energy industries to develop in spite of a few setbacks.. However, it’s still important to consider their side impacts and try to mitigate them so that solving one problem doesn’t mean creating another one.
If you want to be the part of BigWit solar rooftop family, you can give us a call on 7082955224 or send us a mail on sales@bigwitenergy.com. BigWit Energy is one of the best solar companies in Chandigarh, Mohali, Punjab, Panchkula and Maharashtra and we offer EMI plans of upto 3 years for our customers too pan India!
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