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I have to take issue with your use of the foldable solar panel. Studies have estimated that commercial solar panels take 1-4 years to produce enough electricit

I have to take issue with your use of the foldable solar panel. Studies have estimated that commercial solar panels take 1-4 years to produce enough electricity to offset that used in their production [0]. This is for fixed panels, pointing south, at optimal tilt, during all available daylight hours. How many hours per day does that portable panel get used? It seems extremely unlikely to me that the average portable solar panel gets used a significant fraction of what a fixed dedicated panel does, thus will not offset its production emissions. More generally, green gadgets are likely not very green. The true lifecycle advantages over a conventional product if there are any are likely to be very small and you are unlikely to be able to even find out for individual products. People would likely make more of an impact by wasting and consuming less. There are products that can make an impact, they tend to be high energy users like a water heater, HVAC system or insulating a building properly. In the US, many states have deregulated utility markets. That means users can choose who provides their electricity and many green products are available like 100% renewable. See https://www.electricchoice.com/ https://www.electricchoice.com/ for more background and if that's available in your area. 0 - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S136403211500146X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S136403211...

thewhitetulip 8y ago
Earlier, I charged my phone using the grid. I used grid while reading and writing. Now, I have five solar products and I don't use the grid. I also plant 10 trees yearly, I use my bicycle. Doing something is better than being a cynic. The point isn't recuperating amount of energy spent in manufacturing solar pabel, batteries. It is to stop from further consumption of polluting items. Sure, it wouldn't amount to much. I don't use more than 2units of electricity. We still run diesel trains in India, most industries dint use renewable energy. We need to make massive changes if we want to be carbon neutral And I still don't agree with your comment. I have a phone that was manufactured using coal and petrol. I use the phone's half battery during the day by consuming even more petrol. The least I could do is charge it using Solar. The goal of using solar isn't to be "offset within xyrs" it is to stop reliance on oil. It is to use sun, wind. It is to invest. If we don't invest then nothing will happen. This might be similar to banks. Solar is like investing money in the market when it is abysmally low, sure, it might not offset immediately, but it eventually will. That's still better than money under the rug
- thinkcontext 8y ago
  If you are not using the grid and just getting by using a foldable solar panel to charge 5 devices, then I should definitely not be lecturing you about minimizing waste. You make a good point about the important thing being the comparison of emissions you would have caused had you used the grid versus what was used to create the panel and batteries. Still, it depends how much charging you actually wind up doing with the panel over its lifetime whether less CO2 is emitted or not. Though, I imagine in India pollutants other than CO2 are more pressing. Thanks for sharing your experience. On the issue of climate change its somewhat depressing being in the US, policy has been stuck for a very long time. Its inspiring to hear from someone so committed from outside my usual sphere.
  - thewhitetulip 8y ago
    Thank you for having a civil discussion! Our current world climate is intensly hostile and I was afraid that even our discussion would go south. Well, today morning, I charged my phone on solar power (and I'll do so daily from now on). India has bigger issues than CO2, yes, but unfortunately, I can't afford to ignore CO2issues. Our governments are incredibly corrupt and incompetent. Their goal in life is to do enough corruption so that their 7 generations dont5 have to work ever. That aside, yes, it is depressing that US federal policy is ignoring climate change, but don't be sad, half your states have committed to going green by 2030 or something. Plus, Tesla motors and Tesla energy are doing more things for solar than anyone else in this world. They recently bhilt this backup genset in Australia, they also have built solar energy power stations (quietly) in remote islands, I forgot the names. That means US is contributing despite its depressing govt policies. My issue is that India isn't contributing despite+ve federal policies. For all his faults, ny PM has obsessively focused on solar, thankfully, shifting away from nuclear energy. But now company hasa good electric car or 2 wheeler and those cars are costly and run for 70km on one charge. Tesla runs 250miles! Coming to less CO2, I won't be able to offset energy used for solar panel, I don't know how much was used in the first place, But and this is a big but, I'll surely he offsetting all energy I was going to use from the grid anyways. I wasn't going to stop using mobiles, lights for reading at night. So, I'll be saving those emissions and my electricity bill. I get less than 2 $ bill per month, average bill here, converted in dollars should be somewhat 10$, depending on how rich people are. And btw I have five different solar powered devices that can be charged by builtin solar panel and by USB port. So my Idea is to use my power bank to store energy and use it to charge phone or lanterns as required. (Powerbank is 20,000 mah, and also has a 2w solar panel included!)

thewhitetulip 8y ago

Earlier, I charged my phone using the grid. I used grid while reading and writing. Now, I have five solar products and I don't use the grid. I also plant 10 trees yearly, I use my bicycle. Doing something is better than being a cynic. The point isn't recuperating amount of energy spent in manufacturing solar pabel, batteries. It is to stop from further consumption of polluting items. Sure, it wouldn't amount to much. I don't use more than 2units of electricity. We still run diesel trains in India, most industries dint use renewable energy. We need to make massive changes if we want to be carbon neutral And I still don't agree with your comment. I have a phone that was manufactured using coal and petrol. I use the phone's half battery during the day by consuming even more petrol. The least I could do is charge it using Solar. The goal of using solar isn't to be "offset within xyrs" it is to stop reliance on oil. It is to use sun, wind. It is to invest. If we don't invest then nothing will happen. This might be similar to banks. Solar is like investing money in the market when it is abysmally low, sure, it might not offset immediately, but it eventually will. That's still better than money under the rug

thinkcontext 8y ago
If you are not using the grid and just getting by using a foldable solar panel to charge 5 devices, then I should definitely not be lecturing you about minimizing waste. You make a good point about the important thing being the comparison of emissions you would have caused had you used the grid versus what was used to create the panel and batteries. Still, it depends how much charging you actually wind up doing with the panel over its lifetime whether less CO2 is emitted or not. Though, I imagine in India pollutants other than CO2 are more pressing. Thanks for sharing your experience. On the issue of climate change its somewhat depressing being in the US, policy has been stuck for a very long time. Its inspiring to hear from someone so committed from outside my usual sphere.
- thewhitetulip 8y ago
  Thank you for having a civil discussion! Our current world climate is intensly hostile and I was afraid that even our discussion would go south. Well, today morning, I charged my phone on solar power (and I'll do so daily from now on). India has bigger issues than CO2, yes, but unfortunately, I can't afford to ignore CO2issues. Our governments are incredibly corrupt and incompetent. Their goal in life is to do enough corruption so that their 7 generations dont5 have to work ever. That aside, yes, it is depressing that US federal policy is ignoring climate change, but don't be sad, half your states have committed to going green by 2030 or something. Plus, Tesla motors and Tesla energy are doing more things for solar than anyone else in this world. They recently bhilt this backup genset in Australia, they also have built solar energy power stations (quietly) in remote islands, I forgot the names. That means US is contributing despite its depressing govt policies. My issue is that India isn't contributing despite+ve federal policies. For all his faults, ny PM has obsessively focused on solar, thankfully, shifting away from nuclear energy. But now company hasa good electric car or 2 wheeler and those cars are costly and run for 70km on one charge. Tesla runs 250miles! Coming to less CO2, I won't be able to offset energy used for solar panel, I don't know how much was used in the first place, But and this is a big but, I'll surely he offsetting all energy I was going to use from the grid anyways. I wasn't going to stop using mobiles, lights for reading at night. So, I'll be saving those emissions and my electricity bill. I get less than 2 $ bill per month, average bill here, converted in dollars should be somewhat 10$, depending on how rich people are. And btw I have five different solar powered devices that can be charged by builtin solar panel and by USB port. So my Idea is to use my power bank to store energy and use it to charge phone or lanterns as required. (Powerbank is 20,000 mah, and also has a 2w solar panel included!)