8 ms·
Doesn't this feel like we are shifting the problem somewhere else? I'm not sure it is a sustainable option. Solar panels take huge amounts of energy to produce
by gitgud 8y ago
Doesn't this feel like we are shifting the problem somewhere else? I'm not sure it is a sustainable option.
Solar panels take huge amounts of energy to produce, which may not be recovered in the life of the panel.
Its only sustainable if it's possible to have a solar panel factory powered by solar panels... Which seems unlikely
- hetman 8y agoThe idea that solar panels take more energy to produce than they are able to output would make solar panels economically unviable as the energy cost must be recovered to at least break even. That may have been true several decades ago but the solar panels of today are competing economically just fine.
- technicalbard 8y agoBut deployment is slowing in jurisdictions that have decided they can't afford the subsidies and what it does to power prices.
- toomuchtodo 8y agoSolar and wind are cheaper than coal without subsidies.
- gitgud 8y agoIs there any data on this? It takes huge furnaces running at thousands of degrees to melt and process the silicon for the panels, not to mention all the electronics needed to be manufactured. I just can't see how a panel can recover that amount of energy, but maybe I should go and crunch the numbers
- jsilence 8y agothere are two ROI points, one ecological/energy wise and the other economical. the former has been roundabout 1.5 years of production a decade ago. I assume this has gotten better through more efficient production. the latter depends very much on the price of electricity. but since the kWh production price for photovoltaics recently fell below that of coal shows that solar totally makes sense.