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Too bad with the bulk of panels and especially their components made with coal energy, panels net out to the same carbon footprint as clean natural gas. https:/

• jupp0r 3y ago
  You fall into the trap of confusing necessary and sufficient. Switching to solar is necessary, but it is by no means sufficient to become carbon neutral. Other things have to happen, but that doesn't mean that we should stop rolling out solar. Following your argument to the extreme, no solar panel would have been produced, ever.
  • swader999 3y ago
    Yeah a little bit but so does everyone else that thinks these things are the solution and we should dive right into it.
• sunshinesnacks 3y ago
  Except that is very, very far from being an established fact. Note that minimum CO2 from gas referenced here is still higher than the range alleged by the lone researcher referenced in that article: https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy21osti/80580.pdf https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy21osti/80580.pdf. Claiming that everyone else is off by an order of magnitude starts to raise some questions, like, how is there 10x more energy going in and selling solar panels is still profitable? Not all solar is made in China, either. Edit to add: I now see that the EP article only claims that solar might have higher CO2 impacts than gas with carbon capture. Which is an order of magnitude lower than regular gas CCs. And is not widespread, off the shelf, or cost competitive with grid energy prices most places…