Solar panel, photovoltaic
 | Photovoltaic solar panels are used to generate electricity (as opposed to thermal panels, which are used for heating up water or rooms). The process described here is for "multicrystalline silicon solar cells", but other kinds of solar panel are very similar in their environmental impact. The process of constructing a solar panel starts with silicon wafers, which are processed, coated with antireflective glass and finally encapsulated in a plastic and aluminum frame. The recycling of solar panels is rather difficult, and after their useful life of about 25 years they are disposed on the landfills. Main source: here. | |||||||
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Comments
4 comments postedDavid Rothschild wrote:
Overall impact (CEII): 261066.06
Is this a "bad" number? Do solar panels seriously impact in a negative way?
The environmental impact index is not good or bad in itself. It is only good or bad in comparison with impact of other things, and in comparison with whatever it gets you. You may want to think about it as a price we pay for something, an 'environmental cost' (which it is, CEII is a price we pay in pollution and resource depletion).
So is 261000 dollars a good or a bad price for a house? Well, it depends what you get for it. The same goes for CEII. The average solar panel has the impact of about 261000. It means that making such a panel creates as much pollution (and resource depletion) as burning about 300 pounds of coal for electricity. However, such a panel will generate, during its lifetime, about 5500 kWh of electricity in average, while burning of 300 pounds of coal will make only about 275 kWh of electricity. So, with solar panels you can pollute the same, but produce 20 times more electricity. That's pretty good then.
However, if you compare solar panels to hydroelectric power, you will find that with solar panels you can pollute the same, but generate only about 1% of the electricity as with the hydroelectric generators. That's bad...
What is a solar panel's CEII when its beneficial electric power contribution is removed from the equation. What is its CEII just in terms of resource depletion and waste disposal? My question relates to alternatives to PV for power generation.
Well, the CEII is calculated without the "beneficial effects" taken into account. It will be the same, regardles if you use the solar panel to make electricity, or to hide it in your basement. Click on "Bottomline" tab to see the pollution generated and the resources used to make the panel.
The amount of electricity generated (or any other benefit) is only important for evaluation (is it "bad" or "good"?) and for making decisions (should we do this or that?). CEII is basically an Environmental Cost Unit (ECU), and like any other cost, it have to be evaluated in context. You need to look at comparable items (for example, 1 kWh of electricity) generated with different methods, and then chose the one that has the smallest cost (in our case, it will be the smallest CEII, which translates to smallest amounts of pollution and resource depletion).