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©Denis Lenardic
2001-2010
All Rights Reserved
Thursday
2nd Sep, 2010
21:48
This page was last time updated on
11th Apr, 2010
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Environmental and health impacts of photovoltaic technologies
"Do bear in mind: No one has ever scientifically proved solar energy
inefficient or non-economical. If such a scientific research had been
conducted, I would be eager to learn more about it."
Distributed renewable sources or centralised fossil fuels and nuclear power plants?
(sources:
1,2 - SSES Bildarchiv;
3,4 - Denis Lenardic).
Use of solar energy release no CO2, SO2, or NO2
gases and don't contribute to global warming. Photovoltaic is now a proven
technology which is inherently safe as opposed to some dangerous electricity
generating technologies. Over its estimated life a photovoltaic module will
produce much more electricity then used in it's production and a 100 W module
will prevent the emission of over two tons of CO2. Photovoltaic
systems make no noise and cause no pollution in operation. Solar energy is clean,
silent, and freely available.
In year 2005 electricity from renewables saved about 2,8 billion € according comprehensive report written by
specialists from "Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR, Stuttgart)" and
"Fraunhofer Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung (ISI, Karlsruhe)".
CO2 emissions related costs (damage) are assumed to be (in average) about 70 €/ton CO2.
Highly recommended reading (german language only).
Read more... or
download report as
file (337 kB).
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Greenhouse Gas Emissions & Environmental Impacts |
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Simmilar than EPBT calculations CO2 pay back times as a measure for
the climate change mitigation potential associated with PV power
systems can also be calculated. CO2
emissions mostly originate from the use of fossil fuels in the
life cycle of the PV power systems (some other CO2 emissions
also occur). Examples of some other CO2 emissions are emissions
caused by the silica reduction process and the CO2 emissions from the
consumption of carbon electrodes in aluminium production.
Greenhouse gas emissions other than CO2 should also be considered
since some of them have a large global warming potential relative to
CO2, which make that small emissions of those gases can
have a significant contribution to the total Global Warming
Equivalent as expressed in equivalent CO2 emission.
Examples of such gasses are SF6 or CF4,
which may be used in plasma etching processes or in the
cleaning of reactor chambers. Relation between CO2 greenhouse effect
and SF6 greenhouse effect equivalent is 1 : 24,000 (CO2 : CF4 - 1 : 6,500).
The results of Japanese study shows that CO2 emissions for silicon-based
rooftop PV power systems are up to 20 g-C/kWh, except for c-Si
when CO2 emissions from Si material production are fully
included. These emissions are much lower than an average emission of
126 g-C/kWh for the average electrical output of the Japanese
utilities. Below you may find list of available literature for further study... |
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Environmental impacts of renewables - interesting reports |
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Potencial Health and Environmental Impacts Associated With the Manufacture and Use of
Photovoltaic Cells -
excellent and the most comprehensive report about environmental and health impacts of photovoltaic production I found on the web. Available on-line free of charge. For other comprehensive PV related reports please visit EPRI web site.
( Languages:
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Facts on nuclear energy |
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Facts on nuclear energy - why nuclear energy is not suitable energy source. Languages: |
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Environmental impacts of renewables - related web sites |
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Environmental Indicators of Renewable Energy Technologies (RET): Life Cycle Assessment Of Renewable Energy Technologies - Photovoltaics are presented on this web site. Making an environmental balance for a residential photovoltaic system comprises several steps that lead the way through the system's whole life-cycle: investigation of the production stage from the mining of raw material to the installation on the roof, balancing the production stage's flows of material, energy and emissions, simulation and calculation of annual energetic gains, comparison between conventional production of electricity and photovoltaic production of electricity. Languages: |
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Greenpeace Energy - Green electricity in Germany - power plants, facts and prices. Languages:
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Brookhaven National Laboratory - National Photovoltaic Environmental, Health and Safety Assistance Center - This website provides information and guidance for the photovoltaic community and interested public based on work funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Photovoltaics Division. Languages: |
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Photovoltaic module recycling |
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PV CYCLE - The objective and purpose of the association is to promote protection of the climate and the environment by encouraging increased use and sustainability of PV technology. Therefore PV CYCLE intends to implement an overall waste management and recycling policy for the industry which guarantees the highest economically feasible collection and recovery rates as well as appropriate treatment of waste PV modules. Languages:
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SolarMaterial, module recycling - die SolarMaterial bietet als branchenübergreifende Lösung eine Möglichkeit zum werterhaltenden Recycling aller handelsüblichen PV-Module an. Recycelt werden defekte Module aller Bauarten und Größen. Languages: |
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Energy Balance - general topics |
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Literature and more information |
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Alsema, E.: Energy Requirements and CO2 Mitigation Potential of PV
Systems; Photovoltaics and the Environment. Keystone, CO, July 1998,
Workshop Proceedings. Brookhaven National Laboratory, Report Number
BNL-52557, 1999.