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Running head: SOLAR PANELS AND THEIR VIABILITY

Solar Panels and Their Economic and Social Viability


Rodrigo J. Ibez Alcal
University of Texas at El Paso

SOLAR PANELS AND THEIR VIABILITY

Introduction
As an electrical engineer, my main interest is the generation and use of electricity for
technology. As Ive advanced in my classes Ive looked into how electrical energy can be
generated, in these discussions, solar panels were mentioned. I sat through a lecture talking
about how great solar panels are in theory, but then learned about more obscure facts about
solar panels that made them hazardous to the environment and are hard to implement at a
large scale, thus many questions arose. In this paper I will talk about three of these questions;
these are:

Is solar panel production dangerous for the environment?

How economically viable is it to harvest solar energy at a large scale?

And how socially viable is it to switch to solar energy?

Each of these points will be discussed after searching for information in scholarly
articles, journals, and news articles, in addition to a general public opinion survey asking
about different aspects of solar energy and how the public thinks they would handle a
transition to only clean energy.
Are Solar Panels 100% Green?
It is a common belief that the implementation of solar energy at a large scale would
make worrying about harmful greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere as a biproduct of burning fossil fuels to power our generators a thing of the past. What most people
dont know (might include a statistic from survey here) is that the manufacturing process of
these solar panels produces waste, and that there are still greenhouse gasses released into the
atmosphere related to this manufacturing. Fairly recent studies in California shed some light
on the reality of solar panel production.

SOLAR PANELS AND THEIR VIABILITY

Much like pretty much every single mass-produced product in the market produces
waste; solar panels are not an exception. According to Dearen (2013), in many cases solar
panel production creates a toxic sludge when metals and other toxic chemicals are removed
from water used in the manufacturing process, sludge that cannot be processed on-site, but
must be transported elsewhere to be disposed of. In California, The state records show the
17 companies, which had 44 manufacturing facilities in California, produced 46.5 million
pounds of sludge and contaminated water from 2007 through the first half of 2011 (Dearen,
2013). And as if the production of this toxic waste wasnt bad enough, its transportation also
produces waste, something were all very familiar with already; greenhouse gases.
Transportation means vehicles, most vehicles today are powered with fossil fuels, and
burning these fossil fuels produces greenhouse gases; were all very familiar with this
concept. Companies that produce solar panels often dont possess the systems that would
allow them to process their own waste and recycle part of it, thus they send it away on diesel
trucks. This waste can either be disposed of within the vicinity of the companys factories, or
could be sent out-of-state, this shipping factors into the carbon footprint score of solar panels
although it is often left uncounted (Dearen, 2013). Incidently, Dearen (2013) notes that
shipping of 6.2 million lbs. of waste by trailer from Fremont, CA to a site 1,800 miles away
could add roughly 5% to a products carbon footprint. Waste transportation across the country
is not the only factor that contributes to solar panels carbon footprint; there is also the
mining process that takes place before manufacturing the actual panels. Solar panels are
composed of semiconductors and metals which must be mined and refined. Of course, mining
requires machinery, machinery that needs diesel to function, and the gases that come out of
the exhausts of the various machines used in mining are often not factored into the carbon
footprint of solar panels.

SOLAR PANELS AND THEIR VIABILITY

Despite these obscure, hidden facts about solar panels, they are still some of the
cleanest energy sources available to the public today throughout their roughly 20-year life
cycle. Producing solar energy is still significantly cleaner than energy produced by fossil
fuels such as natural gas and coal. Solar panels produce 10 times less hazardous waste than
fossil fuels while producing the same amount of energy (Dearen, 2013). The Centre for
Alternative Technology also talks about this issue:
More recent research by Fthenakis, Kim and Alsema, suggests that the total
greenhouse gas emission (including CO2 and other gases) for electricity from PV
panel is between 20 and 80g CO2-equivalent per kWh under UK conditions. This is
ten times lower than the emissions for electricity from fossil fuels (UK grid average is
around 500g/kWh, electricity from coal can be as high as 1000g/kWh) (What is the
energy, 2010)
Thus, one can still power ones house using solar energy and not feel terribly guilty
about all the contamination caused by the manufacturing of this alternative source of energy.
Much can be done to reduce the solar panel carbon footprint drastically in the next years as
technology advances. Dearen (2013) mentions that the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, a
watchdog group created in 1982, is trying to prevent the solar industry from making similar
mistakes by asking them to voluntarily report their waste, to which 14 larger firms, which
comprise 51% of the solar market share, have replied, the remaining 114 companies have yet
to do so. Dearen adds that there have also been efforts by Smirnow, head of the solar industry
association, to implement a voluntary program of environmental responsibility, to which
seven out of 81 manufacturers have pledged. Solar industry is still young as has a lot of room
for improvement, which will happen over the years.

SOLAR PANELS AND THEIR VIABILITY

However, even if technology does improve and solar energy become cleaner than it is
currently, the economic aspects of switching to a less efficient energy source such as this one
would come with costs. Manufacturing of solar panels would have to be done at a much
larger scale, and solar panels are more expensive that burning fossil fuels at first. How would
the economy handle such a change?
Economic Viability of Solar Energy
Improved technology, increased silicone production, and the increasing cost of
energy are acting to make solar panels more competitive (Goffman, 2008, p. 6). With
current solar energy manufacturing costs, a very small amount of the countrys electricity
comes from solar energy converters such as photovoltaic cells (solar panels) and solar
thermal plants.
Today, solar energy provides three-tenths of 1 percent of the total energy
consumed in the United States. While the amount of solar electricity capacity in the US has
increased in recent yearsrising from 334.2 megawatts in 1997 to 6,220.3 megawatts in
2013 , it still only accounts for 0.2% of net electricity generated in the United States the
least among the renewable sources of hydroelectric, biomass, wind and solar (Solar,
2014).
There are a number of factors that influence the price and economic viability of solar
energy use. Three of these are: the efficiency of the system used, which factors into how long
it will take before the system starts paying for itself; the manufacturing processes used, which
affect the total cost of the system itself, and abundance of the materials necessary for
manufacturing the product. In the following section, only the first two will be discussed.
Efficiency

SOLAR PANELS AND THEIR VIABILITY

Solar energy is particularly apt in sunny climates for obvious reasons. In fact, 250,000
square miles of land in the Southwest could match the nations total energy consumption in
2006 by converting only 2.5% of the radiation absorbed in that space, the Nevada Solar One
solar thermal plant, which came online in 2007, is a notable example (Goffman, 2008, p. 9).
Similarly, solar panels would also need a large amount of land allocated to them. Though
solar technologies are improving, meeting current US electricity needs with todays PV
technology would require about 10,000 square miles of solar panelsan area the size of New
Hampshire and Rhode Island combined (Solar, 2014). Because this, solar sources of
energy are very often critiqued because of the amount of land that must be reallocated and
thus are often considered not economically viable. According to one source, 100 square
kilometers of solar panels would be required in order to power the whole worlds
consumption (Abbott, 2009, p. 50). With more efficiency however, these figures could
change.
Currently, solar energy is on its early stages. Although technology advances and
research have made solar energy more efficient as the years have passed, solar photovoltaic
cells and solar thermal collectors usually are not even at 20% efficiency. This means that not
all sunlight is harvested and converted into electricity by these systems. For example, with
decades of research, solar panels have gone from a measly 6% efficiency, to roughly 15%
(Goffman, 2008, p. 5). This increase in efficiency makes solar panels more viable as they
produce more and more energy as the years pass. For example, assuming a standard condition
of 12%, and a 1,700 kWh/m2 per year of available sunlight energy, a payback of about 4
years is calculated for current solar panels, then 10 years in the future with a 14% efficiency,
the payback could be 2 years (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy, 2004, p. 1). These figures only apply for isolated, decentralized solar
electricity production.

SOLAR PANELS AND THEIR VIABILITY

Solar energy has proven well-suited to a number of site-specific applications where a


remote location can be serviced by electricity generated through PVs and consumed without
any line loss. Because it also saves on the costs of building transmission lines to supply
power, the economics of this type of solar energy improve greatly (Solar, 2014). Solar
energy is actually very economically viable, but not a large scale. Its best use is in domestic
use and in remote locations where transmission lines connecting to a centralized power plant
are neither as easy nor cheap to be constructed.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing plays a very essential role in the total cost of solar panels and solar
thermal collectors. Cheaper and faster manufacturing allows solar panels, for example, to be
sold cheaper, more quickly produced, and more available to the public. Years of research
have made the refinement and use of silicone, the major component in solar panels, to get
better and more efficient, creating less waste and more product. Improved technology,
increased silicon production, and the increasing cost of energy are acting to make
photovoltaic cells more competitive (Goffman, 2008, p. 6). Producing more and better
silicone has affected the individual price of modules over the years; to illustrate,
improvements in manufacturing have reduced the price of modules from about $200 per
watt in the 1950s to $2.70 in 2004 (Goffman, 2008, p. 5). Thanks to these advances in
manufacturing, companies are able to produce better, cheaper, and more efficient solar
panels, and there seems to be a tendency to keep improving this technology.
This improvement is especially noticeable if one compares technology from the
seventies to more recent years. Hossain states that solar panels have experienced an 86% cost
reduction while increasing in production rate since the 1970s (Hossain, Rahim, Solangi,
Saidur, Fayaz, & Madlool, 2011, p. 187). This tells us that technological advancement is

SOLAR PANELS AND THEIR VIABILITY

definitely making solar energy more and more viable, at least for decentralized use. The
economic outlook for these photovoltaic systems is more viable when the system operates in
remote regions where there is no access to public grid (Hossain et al., 2011, p. 191).
Although viable, photovoltaic cells are not yet good enough to use at a larger scale, and thus
we will not be seeing large solar power plants in the near future.
Except in special situations, such as off-grid uses, solar is simply not competitive with
fossil fuels. [...] Stiff up-front cost has always been the biggest barrier to residential use of
solar power. An average set of rooftop panels costs $20,000 to $30,000 and takes 10 to 15
years to produce enough electricity to pay for itself. On a larger scale, this amounts to solar
being at least two to three times as expensive as the typical electricity generated in
America for retail customers (Goffman, 2008, p. 5).
Solar needs government subsidy to become competitive, many sources agree that in
direct competition with electricity generated from fossil fuels, solar cells almost always lose
(Goffman, 2008, p. 10). Solar energy still needs to be further developed, and this can be done
faster if more money is put into researching materials and manufacturing for such sources of
energy. The goal of these subsidies is to make solar energy viable to stand on its own. To do
so, greater efficiency is needed in converting sunlight into electricity (Goffman, 2008, p.
12). We will have to wait and see how the future of solar turns out. Society must be pushed
into looking towards the sun for a source of energy before we deplete the fossil fuels we burn.
Social Viability of Solar Energy Systems
As fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and petroleum have started to deplete as the
years pass, society is forced to play with the idea of renewable sources of electricity.
Hydroelectric plants such as Hoover Dam and windmills have been built in the past to help
with supplying the energy needed for society to function as it does today; however sunlight

SOLAR PANELS AND THEIR VIABILITY

continues to be one of the most potentially useful yet underused sources of energy. There is
obviously a worldwide concern about the environment and where the excessive burning of
fossil fuels will lead us in the future, and this is why renewable sources of energy such as
solar are widely accepted as an idea, not only because its cleaner energy, but because it can
also impact the job market.
As mentioned before, pollution is one of the main reasons why renewable sources of
energy are so widely accepted around the globe. The prospect of energy sources that produce
little to no greenhouse emissions gets people excited since pollution is a phenomenon that is
very much visible, toxic, and undesirable. Hossain claims that due to the rapid growth in fuel
prices and environmental constrains, companies are becoming less attracted to using fossil
fuels in the industrial sector (Hossain et al., 2011, p. 188). Even the economy benefits from
solar energy with a boost in production, importation, and exportation of solar cells. solar
provides advantages that the economic laws of supply and demand, in a vacuum, do not
account for, many governments choose to subsidize solar as a clean and renewable energy
source (Goffman, 2008, p. 11). With these boosts in economy comes also job creation,
which of course is highly desirable.
According to Goffman, green jobs have been suggested as a major potential
stimulus for the United States faltering economy (Goffman, page 11). Bradford explains
that installation of jobs cannot be exported: they must remain in the locations where systems
will be used. . . . These relatively highly paid, skilled jobs will help sustain an educated and
prosperous middle class in any industrialized economy, adds Goffman. This means a lot of
job opportunity for the people of the United States, where finding a good, well payed, and
high skilled job is often considered nearly impossible. These jobs could be created pretty
much all over the world since solar energy can be used in many places, even remote areas
where solar energy is most widely used as discussed before.

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FIGURE 1. Life-cycle atmospheric Cd emissions for PV systems from electricity and fuel
consumption, normalized for a Southern Europe average insolation of 1700 kWh/m2/yr,
performance ratio of 0.8, and lifetime of 30 yrs. Ground-mounted BOS (18) is assumed for all
PV systems; comparisons with other electricity generation options (Fthenakis, Kim &
Alsema, 2008, p. 2171)

FIGURE 2. Monthly average data of different meterological parameters in Palia, India.


Favourable for the use of solar energy (Jamil, Kirmani & Chatterjee, 2014, p. 472)

SOLAR PANELS AND THEIR VIABILITY

FIGURE 3. Average selling price of electricity from CSP plant and average annual unused
solar field energy for a CSP plant at the Nevada location with an SM of 2.0. (Madaeni,
Sioshansi & Denholm, 2012, p. 340).

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References
Abbott, D. (2009). Keeping the energy debate clean: How do we supply the worlds energy
needs?. Proceedings of the IEEE, 98 (1), p. 42-66.
Centre for Alternative Technology. (2010). What is the energy and carbon payback time for
PV panels in the UK?. Retrieved from http://info.cat.org.uk/questions/pv/whatenergy-and-carbon-payback-time-pv-panels-uk
Dearen, J. (2013). Solar industry grapples with hazardous wastes. Yahoo News. Retrieved
from http://news.yahoo.com/solar-industry-grapples-hazardous-wastes184714679.html
Fthenakis, V., Kim, H.C., & Alsema, E. (2008). Emissions from photovoltaic life cycles.
Environmental Science & Technology, 42 (6), p. 2168-2174. Retrieved from
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1021/es071763q
Goffman, E. (2008). Why not the sun? Advantages of and problems with solar energy.
Retrieved from http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/solar/review.pdf
Hossain, M.S.; Rahim, N.A.; Solangi, K.H.; Saidur, R.; Fayaz, H.; Madlool, N.A. (2011).
Global solar energy use and social viability in Malaysia. Clean Energy and
Technology (CET), 2011 IEEE First Conference on, vol., no., pp.187,192, 27-29 June
2011
Jamil, M., Kirmani, S., Chatterjee, H. (2014). Techno-economic viability of three different
energy-supplying options for remote area electrification in India. International
Journal of Sustainable Energy, 33 (2), p. 470-482.

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Madaeni, S.H., Sioshansi, R., Denholm, P. (2012). How thermal energy storage enhances the
economic viability of concentrating solar power. Proceedings of the IEEE, 100 (2),
p.335-347.
Solar. (2014). In Institute for Energy Research. Retrieved from
http://instituteforenergyresearch.org/topics/encyclopedia/solar/
U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. (2004). PV
FAQs (DOE/GO-102004-1847). Washington, DC: The National Renewable Energy
Laboratory. Retrieved from http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/35489.pdf

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