Solar Energy Articles

Solar Panels Have an Ugly Side Too?

This article is based upon the recent study in the field of photovoltaic based solar panels which has revealed that the solar panel installations and usage from there on can be dangerous to the environment since it is responsible for the release of more harmful chemicals and gases into the environment.

Originally, it was discovered that the use of the solar panels at the residential and commercial levels can reduce the emission of the greenhouse gases of up to 90%. This is way better than in terms of usage of fossil fuels which belong to the category of the non-renewable sources of energy.

But it is also true that the solar panels are not available naturally. They do not come falling out of sky. They have to be manufactured by implementing a certain number of processes. Now it is also true that the manufacturing process of the solar panels is just like that of the computer chips. Hence it tends to be a very expensive process which involves a lot of fossil fuels being burnt in the process. Hence it is termed under the category of energy intensive process.

The process can take up right from the stages of mining. First there is a lot of energy that is wasted in the process of mining of the raw material required for solar panel manufacturing i.e. solar panels. This includes the silicon cell manufacturing via the mined quartz sand and also the metal for the connectivity to the different solar cells arranged to form an array.

Then there is also a lot of energy required for treating the raw materials available for the solar panels' manufacturing. For silicon as a raw material alone, massive energy consumption takes place for purification process of silicon, formation of crystals (crystallization) and wafering. Now these materials which are upgraded in terms of industry norms are to be manufactured into solar cells. Then there is another energy intensive process in order to assemble them into their respective modules. All the above described process consumes a lot of non-renewable resources, along with the gas emissions which are harmful for sustainable life on the planet earth. In addition to this, they release heavy metal emissions into the atmosphere. All this leads to the greenhouse gases emissions and hence a heavy concern from the environmental perspective.

The amount of greenhouse gas emissions depends upon the energy mixing standards of the different regions of the world. There are different standards followed in Asia, Europe and USA. It is seen that the mono-crystalline silicon production are at the extremities of causing pollution. All the scenarios that cause the production of silicon based solar cells fit within the extremities that are stated above.

The conclusions as to whether solar panels really do have an ugly side in terms of energy consumption and also in terms of the greenhouse emissions, there are some conclusions which govern these theories.

There are certain parameters based upon which the calculations are made as to whether the solar panels are worth being installed or not. For one parameter, it is lifespan of solar panels. Scientists have suggested it to be 30 years. These kinds of parameters indicate the lifetime electricity generation per unit of greenhouse gases that are emitted during the solar panel manufacturing. The basic fundamental states that the solar panels, over their entire span of lifetime must be able to generate much more electricity equivalent of the energy that is consumed in the process of manufacturing of solar panels.

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