solar cell energy

Posted August 24, 2007 By admin

Does anyone have access to the carbon footprint(s) of Wind and Solar Cell energy?

Specifically, the CO2 releases involved in the construction of the towers, turbines, concrete footings, installation and maintenance of wind farms, and the CO2 releases involved with manufacture and maintenance of the parts associated with solar cells/panels.

I’ve had no luck in my internet search attempts and am genuinely curious.

I believe that is an unknown, although there are some generalizations made. I was working with a construction engineer last spring on a wind farm project who was pondering that very question.

Of course, everything we do requires an expenditure of energy so we have to compare the relative efficiency of each energy source rather than looking only at figures which try to objectively quantify a single source and decide whether it is viable or not, and that would include construction. Looking at it in terms of ‘Units’ just for simplicity’s sake, let’s say that it takes 100 units of energy to construct either a wind farm or oil refinery. Then let’s say that over a period of years, both sources produce 1000 units of energy. So far, they’re even at 900 units net. But then let’s say they know a way to quantify the carbon footprint in terms of unit produced; wind energy would use less than oil being refined, assuming the equipment maintenance costs are approximately the same; maybe that cost would equal 100 units for wind and 300 for oil, then you would calculate the delivery costs, say 100 for oil and 25 for wind, and final cost of burning the energy itself, say another 100 for oil produced energy and 0 for wind.

Of course, the ‘units’ are entirely, 100% speculative just for purposes of example, but in this example the net gain would be 775 units for wind and 400 for oil. The point is that no source of energy is going to be 100% efficient, so you have to outline the parameters and look at the relative efficiency of each source-comparing apples to apples, so to speak.

A Delicious New Solar Cell Technology