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Environmental Impact of your Solar Panel Installation

Environmental Impact of your Solar Panel Installation

Solar energy is unarguably one of the most prominent sources of generating clean electricity. Solar panels, while creating electricity, produce zero carbon emissions, unlike other energy sources like fossil fuel. But the same is not valid for the complete process. There are some parts in the entire lifecycle of solar electricity generation that does possess carbon emissions. Some of the areas do cause water pollution and air pollution as well. 

Through this article, we want our audience to be more aware of what areas to take care of while installing solar rooftop solutions to contribute to reducing greenhouse emissions even more. 

Let’s take a look at the carbon footprint map in the process of solar electricity generation lifecycle:

As mentioned previously, solar panels have zero carbon emissions while creating electricity from the sun. However, there are some other areas where carbon emissions are involved. Let’s look at those areas.

  1. From Mining Solar Panels
 For manufacturing solar panels, a list of raw materials is required. Solar panels are made up of silicon semiconductors and glass. Also, there are parts made up of silver, copper, indium, and tellurium. Speaking of environmental impact, abundant and non-toxic materials like silicon and glass don’t have any negative impact. However, extracting certain materials like indium and tellurium involves processes that result in considerable environmental impact. Thus it should be calculated while looking at the bigger picture of solar electricity. 

  1. From Solar Panel Facilities and Manufacturing units:
A large area of land is needed to set up manufacturing units and facilities for solar panels. It is safe to assume that some amount of agriculture and forest land is taken up by these facilities in some parts of the world.  Along with this, silicon melting needs a very high temperature in manufacturing. It is done by coal burning, which results in carbon emissions at certain levels. 

  1. From transporting solar panels
The logistics world for shipping goods and materials has not yet touched EVs. Almost every vehicle operating to deliver and transport solar panels and other needed fitments run on fossil fuels. This results again in fossil fuel burning and emitting carbon into the atmosphere.

The bigger picture

Even after considering all these environmental impacts, solar energy stands as the top source of green energy. It contributes less to global warming and other environmental hazards than the electricity generated from fossil fuels.

Besides this, the lifetime of solar panels extends up to 25 years in good condition. All the causes mentioned above of impact occur only once at the start of the life cycle, so those can be divided into a 25-year timeframe and considered negligible. 

Thus, it is time for you to switch to solar rooftop panels and solar energy for your electricity needs.

Even after considering all these environmental impacts, solar energy stands as the top source of green energy.

 It contributes less to global warming and other environmental hazards than the electricity generated from fossil fuels.

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