Do Solar Panels Use Coal

Not just the panels that make solar energy but the turbines and power stations and gas pipelines and railroads and railcars that make dirty energy they all take energy to make.

Do solar panels use coal.

That all these 50 ton coal trucks these railroads these coal hauling railroad cars these coal power stations these turbines that turn coal into electricity are all somehow built by fairies. Because solar doesn t have to move on to harvest sunlight in the space next door the way a coal mine must because mining depletes all the potential energy from each acre of land as it scoops up its coal. Furthermore you have to think about the energy debt involved in acquiring raw materials and converting them into the parts used to make solar panels. There s the direct use of energy to manufacture and transport the panels and their components.

So looked at energy generation over time the land footprint of coal is at least 20 bigger than that of solar. All the world s photovoltaic solar panels generate as much electricity as two coal power plants. That can add up fast and a lot of solar plants are using fuels like coal to generate the energy they need for activities like melting silicon. Metallurgical coke metcoke is a source of carbon for solar silicon smelting.

Workers install solar panels in california. Although solar energy is a clean alternative to fossil fuels making the panels themselves can have a negative environmental impact. To make up the rest of coal s share with solar would require boosting the amount of electricity we get from solar about six fold to around 50 000 megawatthours per year. The equivalent of between 1 and 4 tons of coal are used in the manufacture of a single solar panel.