If you didn't already know, solar energy is renewable energy, and in fact is one of the most commonly utilised forms of producing clean, green, renewable energy. Nowadays, it's usage compared to other sources of renewable energy is only eclipsed by wind power, as demand has risen and other technologies like nuclear and green hydrogen are somewhat falling out of favour. Of course the main benefit to the mass adoption of solar energy is that it produces zero emissions and clearly that is a huge help to the environment. This has and will continue to lessen the burden placed on the planet by the still far too prevalent use of unclean fossil fuels worldwide.
Needing just water to run properly, solar panels are extremely sustainable and use no pollutants or other resources in the process of producing energy. Furthermore, solar panels are designed to last for over 25 years and are incredibly reliable, with plenty of products nowadays being created with the intention of lasting for far longer while still being able to produce at full capacity. As a result of this, most solar panels that have been installed around the world from as far back as the late 1990's will still be running perfectly to this very day, and plenty of panels which are even older than this still manage to keep churning out sun-powered energy here in 2022.
One problem, however, that some keep pointing towards, is the manufacturing process of solar. The manufacturing process of solar uses coal or other fossil fuels in its production (because of the extraction of silicon from quartz, which is also mined, and the heavy reliance on automation when creating the products).
What these naysayers fail to realise, is that this is a small price to pay for the bigger picture at hand, over their life cycle coal releases 95% more emissions into the atmosphere. Sure, at this moment in time it does indeed take non-renewable fossil fuels to create a solar panel, but that's a small bump in the road when you consider the vast amounts of clean energy which solar produces over its lifecycle.
A true testament to this, it is said that after just 3 years of use solar panels will have paid back its original carbon footprint (including transportation and other causes of emissions) and after it crosses this barrier it will be a net-positive to the environment. Deniers of solars benefits also throw blame at the recycling process as a negative for the planet, this may surprise you as of course recycling is usually seen as a great way to be sustainable and stop the need to make more and more to meet demand for even more solar - this is the way it should continue to be viewed, we can assure you - however their issues with the recycling come with the fossil fuels needed to actually do all that recycling. Again we follow the same logic, sure it is true that the recycling process does currently require fossil fuels, but the bigger picture wins again, the ability to re-use most of the glass, the aluminium frames and the silicon cells used in solar panels is just too important to miss out on.
In the future, we hope that the transportation will be done by HGVs using hydrogen energy and that the manufacturing and recycling process will use renewable energy rather than fossil fuels, which we know will one day be a reality when renewables are adopted on mass by the world at large. For now we will have to wait, but regardless, solar is still a great net positive for the planet.
Sources:
https://solarify.in/guides/solar-panels-eco-friendly/
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