Is solar power environment friendly?

[AltTransBikes]

In the final analysis Solar power is GREAT. Wonderful. For several applications.

Agreed. Scale matters. One thing to be someone in a van migrating around the sunny desert southwest and another to attempt to broadly augment the national grid. To be fair, the lecturer in the OP's link was talking about the latter.

 

[AuricTech]

I think it's safe to say that, for a vehicle dweller, solar is more environmentally friendly than idling the engine to charge batteries....

 

[AltTransBikes]

I think it's safe to say that, for a vehicle dweller, solar is more environmentally friendly than idling the engine to charge batteries....

Yes and though I assume said somewhat tongue in cheek, rather inefficient as well to idle the vehicle engine to charge batteries. That said however, I'm personally debating how an appropriately equipped, modern, inverter genset stacks up for that task.

 

[Nemo]

I have to disagree with ya Bob though for mobile dwellers i view it as the best choice.. the production of the panels isnt green in the least, and to discount that and the effects of shipping them from source to destination needs to be added in.. Unfortunately, there arent better alternatives other than reducing consumption.

You have to ask yourself where do coal fired power plants come from? Do they just pop-up out of the ground? No, there is a huge amount of carbon burned to produce create the physical plant that is the source of electricity and my guess is the amount of carbon burned to make a solar panel is much less than the amount of build a coal fired plant.

And then you have to consider the amount of carbon produced over the lifetime of the plant in the actual production of electricity. With any other system (oil, coal, natural gas, diesel, propane) it's a huge amount of carbon to produce the fuel, transport the fuel, and then to finally burn the fuel!! With a solar pane it's zero!! Nada !! Zip!!! Zilch!!!! What could be greener than that! Of course if you want to have electricity at night you have to buy batteries so that is some carbon burned on an ongoing basis to make and transport the batteries, but still a tiny fraction of any other electircity generating system.

The real solution is conservation, but anybody who has lived off-grid with solar knows that conservation is all important in our lives. You have a limited amount of electricty and even that can disappear with bad weather so learning to use very little is the key to off-grid life.

Solar is very green and it tremendously encourages conservation.

Bob

 

[akrvbob]

Nemo, now that you are an internationally famous star, you grace us with your appearance!!!! You did a great job!!!!

Granted, I wasn't aware of how bad their production was. But it's all relative and taken as a whole I can't imagine anything is better for the environment except to simply stop using electricity. Of course it would take an actual scientific study of their carbon output from the first to the very last of the life-cycle of all the various forms of electric generation to know. And coming up with an accurate carbon number over the total life-cycle of anything is a very iffy quest.

Of course we could just rely much more on hydro, but I already know your feelings about hydro!
Bob

 

[Nemo]

I understand that it's easier to convert thier production impact into Carbon units, that seems to be the trend, but that doesnt cover the environmental impacts of all the various hazardous materials used and created by the manufacturing.. the panels themselves once made are great.. but it's not a closed system that doesnt have other impacts. Looking at the carbon footprint is great, but that isnt enough

and yeah, missing being on the road, so out of the woodwork again <grin>

and I agree.. reduction of consumption is the key, but at least in the mainstream culture.. that aint likely to happen as long as other options are given.

Nemo, now that you are an internationally famous star, you grace us with your appearance!!!! You did a great job!!!!

Granted, I wasn't aware of how bad their production was. But it's all relative and taken as a whole I can't imagine anything is better for the environment except to simply stop using electricity. Of course it would take an actual scientific study of their carbon output from the first to the very last of the life-cycle of all the various forms of electric generation to know. And coming up with an accurate carbon number over the total life-cycle of anything is a very iffy quest.

Of course we could just rely much more on hydro, but I already know your feelings about hydro!
Bob

 

[akrvbob]

It's a nightmare trying to track the total environmental impact of something from conception to the end of it's life and beyond.

A very good book that explains it is "How Bad are Bananas: The Carbon Footprint of Everything". Highly recommended.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Bad-Are-Bananas-everything-ebook/dp/B004VO4IZY/

No doubt trying to arrive at a total Carbon Footprint is very difficult and once done is very incomplete at cataloging other environmental damage, but right now it's about the best method of comparing various items we have.

Plus, carbon output is the most immediate threat to our eco-system and existence here on this little green and blue marble. The other damage will get us in the long run, but carbon is going to get us very, very soon
Bob