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Carbon emissions and solar energy

Millie HennickJuly 18, 2018 442 0

Carbon emissions and solar energy

Solar energy reached a tipping point in 2011. This was the year when the solar industry had saved more greenhouse gases than it emitted. This is the best estimate of a new paper published in the journal “Nature Communications”, which addresses questions around the sustainability of solar panels by comparing the amount of CO2 emitted during production to the amount saved once in use.

The growth of Solar Power

The growth of solar power capacity has accelerated globally over the past 40 years. Cumulative capacity grew from less than one megawatt (MW) in 1975 to around 180 gigawatts (GW) by the end of 2014, the study says. That is an increase of around 45% year-on-year. This growth rate is celebrated as a sign of a thriving industry and a boon in the fight against climate change. This is because solar panels generate carbon-free, renewable power. Still, producing the panels requires energy. Since this energy largely comes from fossil fuels, greenhouse gases are emitted during panel production. Solar panels displace more dirty energy over their lifetime than was consumed during their production. For the industry as a whole, rapid growth means initial production emissions may have outweighed the savings from using solar instead of coal or gas. When these savings start to outweigh CO2 released during production,  the solar industry contributes to mitigating climate change. This paper investigates when this break-even point occurs.

Declining costs of solar energy

The investment firm Lazard estimates that the cost of generating electricity from wind and solar has declined by 58 percent and 78 percent, respectively, since 2009. Those cost trends are expected to continue and coupled with the recent extension of federal tax credits for renewable energy, wind, and solar growth is widely expected to accelerate over the next several years, with capacity projected to double from 2015 levels by 2021. With careful organization, renewable energy and clean energy options like increased energy efficiency and storing energy for use later will help pave the way.

For the longer term, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan to establish the first national limits on carbon pollution from power plants will continue to drive renewable energy growth. Wind and solar energy will play a central role in achieving the emissions cuts required, and carbon policies like the Clean Power Plan will be critical to ensuring that low-carbon resources are prioritized over higher-emitting power plants.

The benefits of solar power are huge

In addition to the climate benefits that they will help deliver, renewables already provide a wide range of market and public health benefits that far outweigh their costs. A recent report from the Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National (LBNL) Laboratory found that renewable portfolio standards—state policies that mandate that a specific amount of the state’s electricity comes from renewables—provide a wide range of economic, health, and climate benefits. The report summary suggests that in 2013 alone, renewable standards across the country saved customers up to $1.2 billion from reduced wholesale electric prices and $1.3 billion to $3.7 billion from lower natural gas prices (as a result of lower demand for natural gas across the power sector). Clean energy growth and the transition to a low-carbon electric grid are significant goals for the United States. There will be technical challenges to completing this transformation, but multiple studies conclude that integrating high levels of renewables into our electric grid is achievable. This is also being demonstrated in practice, as many states are already incorporating wind and solar, including in Texas, where the wind has now supplied over 45 percent of the state’s total energy demand on multiple occasions, and in Iowa, as the state now generates 31 percent of its total annual power from wind.

Take action now

If you want to move into the future and join the solar revolution, or if you want to find out what solar panels are right for you, go to HahaSmart.com and try our price checker tool. You can see how much a system will cost, and how much you can save over the next 20 years.

For more information relating to going solar, don't forget to visit our solar blog section for more handy guides and articles.


 

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