Consumption, resources, and the environment: What you need to know.

 Consumption, resources, and the environment: What you need to know.

Just how “renewable” is renewable energy?

Using fewer fossil fuels and moving to cleaner, more “green” energy sources is a good idea, right? Well on the outside it does seem great it just is not that simple, and though it is definitely the right idea this post should help to inform you of potential drawbacks to these forms of energy that may not be intuitively clear. When thinking about renewable energy one of the first things that comes to mind is solar panels. I mean there is plenty of solar energy to go around, so why don’t we have more solar panels? This is when utilizing life cycle assessments can really come in handy as an LCA determines the “cradle to grave” impacts of a product, in other words they quantify the impacts a product has on the environment from the extraction of the materials to create the product all the way to the products disposal or end of life. Although currently according to an LCA done in Spain, solar panels are considered sustainable with a payoff time much shorter than the life expectancy it is still important to understand the impacts creating one has (A. Sumper, 2011).

Once a solar panel is up and running it is no longer creating emissions, however, to create one is a lengthy process that utilizes over 15 different minerals (Information adapted from mineral information institute) that must be extracted and transported using fossil fuels. Mining can also create some serious environmental impacts, such as runoff from the leftover material's “tailings” releasing chemicals into nearby bodies of water. And although we are not at risk of running out of these materials right now, this energy source still relies on materials that we do have only a limited supply of.  Furthermore, assembly of the solar cells occurs in a plant where most of the work is done by robots that too must be powered by some energy source leading to more carbon emissions. Beyond that solar panels do have a life span of about 20-30 years (A. Sumper, 2011), and although that is quite long, they still need to be disposed of which currently finds many going into landfills as recycling or reuse has not caught much traction in the US. A final thing to consider with solar panels is the land use they require to be beneficial, although they do help with reducing the human impact on climate change they still contribute and take up lots of space that could be utilized differently. This is not to say that solar panels are bad, and we should completely stop using them, as they are actually an amazing source of energy that with time will likely see vast improvements in efficiency and functionality, the point is to understand that right now even forms of energy that we like to think are perfect also have their own effects on the environment and understanding those effects can help to make further improvements towards more clean energy.

References 

How are solar panels made?

How Solar Panels Are Made | LetsGoSolar.com

Metals and Minerals Used to Make Solar Panels

Solar Panels.indd (miningrocks.net)

Solar Panel Recycling

Solar Panel Recycling | US EPA

Sumper, Andreas, et al. “Life-Cycle Assessment of a Photovoltaic System in Catalonia (Spain).” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Pergamon, 5 Aug. 2011, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032111002620?casa_token=u8xNs4yKDEUAAAAA%3ATmKXr11G1QVNXZiXd8cgMDOG7KuBF-mhl7jlgdpYX98KZqdWujheHEEC-jwjgruZmAepDheh.