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> It may produce more right now, with the existing supply chain for materials. This hasn't been true for some time. There's simply not enough money. The solar
by Schroedingersat 4y ago
> It may produce more right now, with the existing supply chain for materials.
This hasn't been true for some time. There's simply not enough money. The solar module in a good location costs 0.7 cents per kWh installed. Although that can buy you a couple hundred grams of coal, doing literally anything with it uses up all the money.
A 450W monocrystalline panel is under a kg of silicon, 50g of copper an a gram or so of silver.
The neat thing about solar panel factories is they have a bunch of solar panels, and so tend to produce 30-90% of their own electricity, so the carbon footprint is almost entirely racking, shipping 20kg, and the 11kg or so per panel from the raw silicon (which uses 70% of the money).
Meanwhile Uranium ore concentration is decreasing slightly faster than mining is getting more efficient.
- pfdietz 4y agoGood to know. I think the CO2 emission will be mostly from making the glass and aluminum, not the cells themselves. BTW, last I checked, reduction of silica to silicon is done with charcoal as the carbon source. Something about the porous nature of charcoal leading to better reaction with silicon monoxide vapor.