3 ms·
> cover every rooftop .. What about the carbon we add doing this? I mean manufacturing, transport and all such indirect sources of carbon.
by anthropodie 6y ago
> cover every rooftop ..
What about the carbon we add doing this? I mean manufacturing, transport and all such indirect sources of carbon.
- CyanBird 6y ago> What about the carbon we add doing this? That's why OP is talking of decarbonificating the oil production itself, so as things start to decarbinify they will continue accelerating on that road as other processes become more decarbonized The entire aluminum production on Iceland for example is already decarbonized
- bit_logic 6y agoEverything currently requires fossil fuel sourced energy to create it. So the question is, over the expected lifespan of the object, will it create more energy than was required to produce it? Solar panels expected lifespan is about 30 years. Installation, transport, etc. are all a fixed initial carbon cost. Studies and analysis have already been done (google search for studies from NREL) and the initial carbon cost payback is about 3-4 years of a typical 30 year solar panel lifespan. So 27 years of effectively carbon negative power generation. But also consider the downstream effects. Once you have a carbon negative power source like solar in place, the carbon cost to create other things drops as well (since they use less and less power from fossil fuel sourced power).
- dredmorbius 6y agoSolar panels expected lifespan is about 30 years. Nearer 20, due to numerous degredation pathways. Meaning that one possible avenue to reduced impact would be an extended-life PV (or other solar) array. It's a ccomplex prtoblem, and one for which present financial methods (NPV, future vaalie discounting) work strongly against.