Photo credit: Rennett Stowe

Does solar manufacturing have a “dirty little secret?” This was the question at hand for a recent article in the Bay City Times, a newspaper located near Midland, Michigan where a new Evergreen Solar manufacturing facility is set to open later this year. The controversy stems from the coal-fired electricity, bought from regional energy supplier Consumer’s Energy, that the Evergreen Solar plant will require and that existing big-time solar manufacturer Hemlock Semiconductor already does.

The majority of usable electricity in Michigan, and many other places in the country, is still produced by way of coal-fired power plants; not much of a secret. So the inevitable argument arises that the process of manufacturing solar panels is inherently opposed to the very energy savings they claim to create. In Bay City and Midland the debate is exacerbated by yet another $2 billion, 800 megawatt plant proposed by Consumer’s Energy in the area: one of eight coal-fired plants now on the table in Michigan. On top of that, Hemlock Semiconductor is Consumer’s Energy’s top electricity consumer in the area.

Yet the idea that solar manufacturing plants are “wasting time” by using coal-fired electricity to build solar panels is fairly well shot down by Vasilis M. Fthenakis, also quoted in the Times piece, of the National Photovoltaic Environmental Research Center in New York. Having co-authored a study funded by the European Commission and U.S. Department of Energy, Fthenakis asserts that solar panels “pay back” the energy consumed to build them with carbon-free energy within one to 2.5 years. While making solar panels is not 100% pollution free at this point, their lifetime of 30 years or more guarantees a lasting impact on and reduction of fossil fuel consumption on the national grid.

Photo credit: Energy Plus

Fthenakis also points out that solar power overall is about 89 percent cleaner than fossil fuels, including comparisons of fossil fuel emissions to energy requirements for solar manufacturing, as well as mining for fossil fuels versus mining for base materials required for photovoltaics. Furthermore, while the Evergreen plant and Hemlock plants do have emissions of their own — in toxic mercury for Evergreen and VOCs for both — they are considerably cleaner than opposing manufacturing plants, such as a Dow Corning plant in Midland, which emits nearly seven times as much VOCs than either of the solar plants.

Nonetheless it would be nice to eliminate the need for fossil-fueled solar manufacturing plants. Although I cannot think of any other way to do it but by making and implementing newer and better solar panels, as well as fostering other renewable resources. In addition to encouraging more domestic solar manufacturing, we must also get more aggressive about encouraging and incentivizing energy efficiency and energy use reduction, in home, businesses, and manufacturing plants of all types.

Posted on June 24th in Solar Politics by Dan.