{"id":1955,"date":"2020-11-10T09:39:53","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T09:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regalgrid.com\/?post_type=magazine&#038;p=1955"},"modified":"2024-09-25T13:11:36","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T13:11:36","slug":"pv-system-environmental-impact","status":"publish","type":"magazine","link":"https:\/\/regalgrid.com\/en\/magazine\/pv-system-environmental-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"PV system environmental impact: is solar energy sustainable?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Power generation from renewable sources, such as PV panels, has a\u00a0<strong>very positive environmental impact<\/strong>. Although dimensions and proportions are completely different compared to other power generation methods, the\u00a0<strong>carbon footprint<\/strong>\u00a0of this\u00a0<strong>clean energy cannot be denied<\/strong>. \u00a0Which impact does the PV industry have on our planet? Let\u2019s analyse the emissions during the different stages of the product life cycle:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Manufacturing<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Use<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Disposal<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Environmental impact of solar panels manufacturing<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Quartz extraction<\/strong>\u00a0and its transformation in\u00a0<strong>polysilicon<\/strong>\u00a0require high temperature plants, this means energy-consuming systems. The use of this material \u2013 which is a\u00a0<strong>great semiconductor<\/strong>\u00a0for energy transmission to photovoltaic cells \u2013\u00a0<strong>is not toxic nor dangerous<\/strong>\u00a0for the public safety, as shown by a study carried out by the North Carolina University.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Silicon is the second most abundant element on the Earth\u2019s crust,\u00a0<\/strong>the first one is oxygen. It is a very common semi-metal found in nature as a compound: it is contained in sand,\u00a0<strong>granite, clay and precious stones<\/strong>\u00a0such as quartz, amethyst, agate, opal and it is the major component of glass, ceramic and cement.<\/p>\n<p>Beside being widely used in\u00a0<strong>electronics\u00a0<\/strong>thanks to its conductive properties, Sillicon is used to produce almost all the\u00a0<strong>PV panels<\/strong>\u00a0currently on the market and photovoltaic cells are almost entirely made of it. Anyway, these cells weight\u00a0<strong>less than 2% of the whole panel structure.\u00a0<\/strong>Silicon quantity, in the form of almost impalpable\u00a0<em>wafers<\/em>, is a really small one. No doubt that the quantity of glass composing the frontal cover and the aluminium composing the frame (where required) is much bigger. Therefore, we can consider a PV panel just like a window with its frame.<\/p>\n<p>Other types of panels use the\u00a0<strong>cadmium telluride\u00a0<\/strong>(CdTe) instead of polysilicon. Environmental impact is lower, just like the costs: unfortunately, efficiency is also compromised.<\/p>\n<p>While speaking of environmental impact, our attention focuses on\u00a0<strong>cadmium<\/strong>, known as a toxic heavy metal. In this case too, the study carried out by the University of North Carolina points out that \u201cpure\u201d cadmium is totally different from its compounds, which are more chemically\u00a0<strong>stable<\/strong>, therefore safer. The compound of the heavy metal guarantees a very small quantity of cadmium, with an\u00a0<strong>extremely low degree of toxicity<\/strong>, hundred times lower that the free metal. Cadmium telluride is\u00a0<strong>not volatile<\/strong>, therefore not inhalable and it is not soluble in water. Using this extremely safe compound, this energy conductor\u00a0<strong>is not dangerous for humans, nor for the environment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>We must also highlight that coal and petrol combustions release a 300 times higher quantity of this kind of substances.<\/p>\n<h2>Carbon footprint of a functioning PV system<\/h2>\n<p>According to a study carried out by the University of Utrecht, a PV system will pay back in\u00a0<strong>2 years<\/strong>\u00a0the carbon footprint generated for his realization (energy payback time), corresponding to\u00a0<strong>20g\/kWh<\/strong>\u00a0of CO<sup>2<\/sup>. Considering that a solar panel has an average\u00a0<strong>lifespan longer that 25 years<\/strong>, one-twelfth of its life is dedicated to paying back its environmental carbon footprint. Nothing compared to those 400-500 g\/kWh produced by the panels on the market during the \u201970s, disposable in 20 years. Most importantly, this is nothing compared to any other energy source, in particular non-renewable energies.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, this study has shown that the growing production of solar energy reduces the energy needed to manufacture a solar panel and the connected CO<sup>2\u00a0<\/sup>emissions (respectively 12% and 17-24% at each doubling of solar power generating capacity).<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, greater\u00a0<strong>energy efficiency<\/strong>\u00a0and the continuous\u00a0<strong>innovation<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0towards\u00a0<strong>circular economy<\/strong>\u00a0suggest an even greener future for photovoltaic.<\/p>\n<h2>Disposal and recycle of PV panels<\/h2>\n<p>After an average time of 25 years it is more convenient to replace PV panels, even if they are still functioning. This can be defined as the panels \u201cend of life\u201d, although this is not accurate, meaning we have to concern about their\u00a0<strong>disposal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>According to the\u00a0<strong>Italian law<\/strong>, for example, a specific procedure must be followed in order to avoid any dispersion of pollutants in the environment and to optimize the recovery of recyclable materials. In order to ensure a proper disposal of your panel you should rely on a\u00a0<strong>WEEE collection centre<\/strong>, by filling out a specific form.<\/p>\n<p>This way a proper separation of\u00a0<strong>aluminium, plastic, glass, copper, silver<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>silicon<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0<strong>cadmium telluride<\/strong>\u00a0&#8211; depending on the panel \u2013 can be performed. These substances will be recycled to produce new panels: the\u00a0<strong>percentage<\/strong>\u00a0of recovered materials can reach the 95%.<\/p>\n<h2>The positive carbon footprint of photovoltaic in the world<\/h2>\n<p>The environmental impact of the photovoltaic must be considered positive and always improving. Globally installed PV capacity exceeds\u00a0<strong>400GW<\/strong>\u00a0(<strong>gigawatt<\/strong>), with a production of\u00a0<strong>370 TWh<\/strong>\u00a0(terawatt-hours) in the last year, corresponding to\u00a0<strong>1.5% of the global energy supply<\/strong>. This is supposed to reduce the production of greenhouse gases of about\u00a0<strong>170 Mt\u00a0<\/strong>(million tons).<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":4454,"parent":0,"template":"","category-magazine":[42],"class_list":["post-1955","magazine","type-magazine","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine-smart-eco-and-sustainability"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regalgrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine\/1955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regalgrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regalgrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/magazine"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/regalgrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine\/1955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4456,"href":"https:\/\/regalgrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine\/1955\/revisions\/4456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regalgrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regalgrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category-magazine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regalgrid.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category-magazine?post=1955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}