Ecologically acceptable solar cells
|
|
|
Solar energy is often spoken as being renewable energy source that could be used on global scale as the alternative to currently dominant fossil fuels that are mainly responsible for current global warming phenomenon. However there are many environmentalists and some scientists that are worried about the potential negative impact of solar cells (photovoltaic technology). This is because manufacturing process of photovoltaic cells needs toxic metals such as mercury, lead and cadmium, and this process also produces carbon dioxide (CO2) which is greenhouse gas mainly responsible for global warming phenomenon.
However newest study issued under title "Emissions from Photovoltaic Life Cycles" and carried by Professor Vasilis M. Fthenakis and his colleagues should really help ease this concern about harmful environmental impact of manufacturing photovoltaic cells. As this study showed manufacturing process of solar cells produces far less air pollutants that the traditional fossil fuels technologies.
|
| Small solar cell panel. |
This research was really comprehensive and researchers gathered air pollution emissions data from 13 solar cell manufacturers in Europe and the United States from 2004-2006, and this research included four major commercial types of solar cells: multicrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon, ribbon silicon, and thin-film cadmium telluride. Results of this study were even more optimistic than the scientists hoped for and showed that producing electricity from solar cells reduces air pollutants by about 90 percent in comparison to using conventional fossil fuel technologies. The study reported: "Overall, all PV technologies generate far less life-cycle air emissions per GWh than conventional fossil-fuel-based electricity generation technologies. At least 89% of air emissions associated with electricity generation could be prevented if electricity from photovoltaic displaces electricity from the grid".
Study also found that thin-film cadmium telluride solar cells have the lowest life-cycle emissions primarily because they consume the least amount of energy during the module production of the four types of major commercial PV systems: multicrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon, ribbon silicon, and thin-film cadmium telluride (CdTe). Solar cells technology is recently experiencing great growth as there are more investments in this sector which are mostly oriented on improving the efficiency of solar cells and with this encouraging results form ecological point of view solar cell technology could become even more significant renewable energy sector in years to come. This is not only good from ecological point of view but also from energetic point of view since fossil fuels are not only ecologically unacceptable energy sources but are also limited and so new alternatives are needed both form ecological as well as energetic point of view.
This study "Emissions from Photovoltaic Life Cycles" was issued last week in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology.
More about solar energy you can read here.
Video clip "Photovoltaic principle" you can view here.
|
