Solar\nphoto voltaic is classified as renewable energy source because it captures the\nSUN\u2019s energy and \u201cconverts\u201d it to electricity. So SUN\u2019s energy is renewable and\nnot the energy converters like solar cells! Let us understand how solar cells\nare manufactured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A\nlife cycle of a solar cell starts from the mining and processing of materials.\nThis material is basically silica in the form of minerals and rocks like quartz\nand quartzite. Then comes the solar cells that are made from\nthe refined silicon from these mineral and rock. The cells are then fixed in\nmodules, generally a metal made from naturally\noccurring material. From the solar panels the flow goes into storage system\nlike lithium based batteries. The lithium is mined from open cast or\nunderground mines or extracted from minerals like spodumene or lithium bearing\nmica. Everything has to come from earth!! Once the solar panels and batteries\ncomplete their function, they are decommissioned and the materials some times\nare recycled or disposed of. The cost associated with the manufacturing of the\ncells to batteries are embedded in the cost of electricity that the cells\ngenerated from the Sun. But there are other costs known as the external costs.\nThey included environmental, health and societal. These costs are well\nquantified by European Union\u2019s series of \u201cExternE\u201d (External cost of Energy)\nprojects. This includes emissions generated from the manufacturing of cells,\natmospheric dispersions and respiratory issues associated with such\ndispersions. They are not imbedded in the cost of electricity. This ExternE\nhelps in policy decisions by the energy and transport sectors. In the latest\nExternE report published by the European Commission states that photovoltaic\ninstallations in Germany has 30% higher health impacts than natural gas and\nGreen House Gas emissions of 180 g CO2<\/sub> equivalent\/kWh generated is\n10 times higher than the electricity generated from nuclear fuels. According to\nthe ExternE report, the results are based on greater than 15 years old solr pv\ninstallations and module production technology. Similar study by Australia\nshowed that solar pv emits about 100 g of CO2<\/sub> equivalent\/kWh of\nelectricity generated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A\npaper published by Fthenakis and Alsema in 2006 (Prog. Photovolt: Res. Appl. 2006; 14:275\u2013280<\/em>) states that the 94%\nof the PV system modules in 2004 that were installed to generate about 1250 MW\nwere made of silicon. These authors with the cooperation of several European\nand US photovoltaic companies carried out extensive study on the life cycle\ninventory data that represent the present status of production technology of\ncrystalline silicon modules (mono and multicrystalline) for rooftop pv systems.\nThe results of the study by Germany and Australia are similar (Fig 1) very\nsimilar. The ExternE cost for health and environment estimated for solar\ninsolation of 1700 kWh\/m2<\/sup>\/yr is about euro 0.18\/kWh and for solar\ninsolation of 1300kWh\/m2<\/sup>\/yr would be euro 0.23\/kWh. This study\nreports that the CO2<\/sub> emissions under the above conditions vary\nbetween 21 to 59 g CO2<\/sub> eqi\/kWh. Although this emission is less than\nthat emitted by coal based thermal power plants, it is significant when GW are\nconsidered. At 15 % efficiency a 1 KW solar pv will emit 75 kg of CO2<\/sub>\nduring its life cycle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Basics\nof solar pv cells<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manufacturing\nof solar pv cells is an energy intensive process, starting from mining of\nmaterial, transportation, smelting, processing and manufacturing. In the entire\ncycle of production the main energy source is either coal based thermal power\nplants or electricity generated from hydroelectric power stations. Thus\npreparation of solar cell is closely associated with CO2<\/sub> and other\ngases emissions as quantified above. Manufacturing of a single solar cell is\nassociated with a large number of ancillary industries. Mining, metallurgical, electronics\nand other metal manufacturing industries are closely associated with the\nmanufacturing of solar cells. By not promoting solar pv all these ancillary industries\nwill collapse and the country\u2019s GDP will dip\u2026.especially some of the European\ncountries that are vehemently promote solar pv!! To prepare 1 m2<\/sup> of\nsc-Si module the electricity required is 4620 kWh. To generate 4620 kWh 2.17\ntons of coal is required (40% efficiency) and the CO2<\/sub> emission is\n5810 kg. To generate 1 MW of electricity nearly 14000 sc-Si modules are needed\nthat will occupy about 4 acres of land. Thus to generate about 1.368 million\nkWh of electricity, the solar cells, during its life cycle, will generate huge\namount of CO2<\/sub>. This does not include the batteries ( lithium) needed\nfor storing the electricity generated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Solar photo voltaic is classified as renewable energy source because it captures the SUN\u2019s energy and \u201cconverts\u201d it to electricity. So SUN\u2019s energy is renewable and not the energy converters like solar cells! Let us understand how solar cells are manufactured. A life cycle of a solar cell starts from the mining and processing of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geothermal-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dchandra.geosyndicate.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dchandra.geosyndicate.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dchandra.geosyndicate.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dchandra.geosyndicate.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dchandra.geosyndicate.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/dchandra.geosyndicate.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":607,"href":"http:\/\/dchandra.geosyndicate.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions\/607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dchandra.geosyndicate.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dchandra.geosyndicate.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dchandra.geosyndicate.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}