RESEARCH
Falling costs
RESEARCH
Solar panels have repaid their energy ‘ debt ’: Netherlands research study
The climate-friendly electricity generated by solar panels in the past 40 years has all but cancelled out the polluting energy used to produce them , a study said Tuesday . Indeed , by some calculations , the so-called “ break-even point ” between dirty energy input and clean output may already have arrived , researchers in the Netherlands reported .
W e show strong downward trends of environmental impact of solar panel production , the team wrote in the journal Nature Communications .
The study sought to address concerns that solar technology may be using fossil fuel energy in the panels ’ manufacture , and emitting greenhouse gases , faster than it was able to offset .
The authors found that for every doubling in solar capacity installed , energy used to produce solar panels decreased by 12-13 percent , and greenhouse gas emissions dropped by 17-24 percent , depending on the material used .
Solar panels , which convert sunlight into electricity , are a key player in the fast-growing renewable energy sector , which also includes water- and wind-generated electricity .
Unlike energy from fossil fuels such as oil , coal and gas , the generation of electricity by so-called photovoltaic ( PV ) panels does not release planetharming carbon dioxide .
Solar panel capacity grew sharply , on average , by 45 percent per year from 1975 to reach 230 billion watts ( Gigawatt or GW ) in 2015 .
In 1975 , there were fewer than 10,000 solar panels around the world , compared to about a billion today , study co-author Wilfried Van Sark of Utrecht University in the Netherlands told AFP .
By the end of 2016 , “ we would have some 300 GW installed ” - about 1-1.5 percent of global electricity demand .
Falling costs
• Over an average lifespan of 30-odd years , a PV system pays back the energy that was used in producing it “ multiple times ,” said the study authors .
• Looking at data since 1976 , the researchers calculated that on a global scale , solar energy ’ s “ debt was likely already repaid in 2011 ” for both energy input and greenhouse gases .
• Even on the least optimistic data , break-even point will be reached at the latest next year for net energy , and in 2018 for greenhouse gases , they said .
• The photovoltaic effect , by which certain materials convert the photon particles in sunlight into energy , was first identified by French physicist Edmund Bequerel in 1839 .
• The first photovoltaic battery was built in 1954 but was too expensive for widespread use .
• The technology was used in the 1960s to generate power on spacecraft , and only started taking root on Earth in the 1970s .
• From 1975 , costs decreased by about 20 percent for every doubling in capacity , the study found .
• In 1976 , one would have paid about $ 80 ( 75 euros at today ’ s rates ) for one Wattpeak ( Wp ) unit , compared to about 64-67 US cents today .
Source : AFP
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EQ December 2016 www . EQMagPro . com