5 Advantages of Solar Power

Solar PV systems produce net clean electricity 93% of their lifetime.

PV technologies are amongst the cleanest electricity production methods in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

Solar power produces very little heavy metals emissions.

Solar power requires less land than wind, hydro and biomass power plants.

Waste generated from decommissioned solar panels can be recycled.

Here's a summary of these advantages of solar power.

How much net clean energy do solar modules produce?

The production of silicon solar modules requires a significant amount of energy as silicon is processed in furnaces reaching 1400 degrees Celsius. If these furnaces are powered by "dirty energy", for example, a coal power plant, then we could argue that manufacturing solar panels is bad for the environment, and solar PV shouldn't be used on a large scale, if at all. 

On the other hand, once these solar modules are put into service, they can produce clean energy for an average of 30 years.  

In this course, you will see a study showing that solar modules produce net clean energy over 93% of their lifetime. 

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Does solar PV technology cause greenhouse gas emissions? How much?

It's pretty obvious that once installed, solar modules do not produce any greenhouse gases. But what about during the earlier stages of their life-cycle, like during the extraction of the raw materials needed to make them and during the manufacturing process itself?

We answer this question using a life-cycle analysis (LCA). LCA takes into consideration the material and energy inputs to all stages leading up to and including the production of the solar modules, as well as to the processes used to manufacture what is known as balance of system (BoS) components. BoS refers to all of the components associated with the PV system other than the solar modules themselves.

This analysis shows that solar PV power plants emit 50X less greenhouse gas emissions than coal, and 6X less than gas with carbon capture. It is on par with nuclear in the United States.

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Do solar modules emit heavy metals into the environment?

When evaluating the heavy metals emissions of PV technologies two aspects must be considered; direct emissions and indirect emissions.

Direct emissions of heavy metals could occur during the mining and the processing of raw materials and also during the manufacturing of PV modules.

Indirect emissions are those associated with the generation of the energy used in the mining steps and the industrial processes that make up the PV life cycle.

One heavy metal of particular concern is cadmium since once released, it can persist in the environment for a long time. It can be transported from one location to another, either by the wind or by water, potentially causing damage to human health and wildlife.

In this course, you will see that the cadmium emissions of all solar PV technologies, including CdTe (cadmium telluride), are comparable to nuclear and natural gas.

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How much land does a solar PV power plant need?

A major concern regarding the grand-scale global deployment of solar PV technology is the amount of land that would be needed for the installation of the solar arrays.

In this course, we will present estimations of the land usage of 14 renewable and non-renewable energy resources. We will show that solar PV is the 6th least land-intensive resource for electricity production. Solar PV will require less land as the efficiency of solar cells increases and new photovoltaic technologies emerge. For example, solar power-producing building materials like roof shingles and windows. 

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Can the waste generated from decommissioned solar modules be recycled?

Growing PV panel waste presents a new environmental challenge but has also led to innovations in the recovery of raw materials. 

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