Solar’s effect on the environment

Constant reports of climate-related weather events are making people take a hard look at their energy use. Alternative energy sources are becoming more popular and solar is by far the most cost effective and efficient. Solar energy reached a tipping point in 2011. That was the year when the solar industry saved more greenhouse gases than it emitted. This is the best estimate of a new paper published in the journal “Nature Communications”, which discusses questions concerning the sustainability of solar panels by comparing the amount of CO2 emitted during production to the amount saved once in use.

The growth of solar power

The growth of solar power has accelerated globally over the past 40 years. Cumulative capacity grew from less than one megawatt (MW) in 1975 to around 180 gigawatts (GW) by the end of 2014, the study says. That is an increase of around 45%. This growth rate is celebrated as a sign of a thriving industry and a help in the fight against climate change. This is because solar panels generate carbon-free, renewable energy. However, producing the panels requires energy. Since this energy largely comes from fossil fuels, greenhouse gases are emitted during panel production. Fortunately, solar panels displace more polluting energy over their lifetime than was consumed during their production. For the industry as a whole, rapid growth means initial production emissions may have outweighed the savings from using solar instead of fossil fuels. When these savings start to outweigh CO2 released during production, the solar industry contributes to mitigating global warming. 

Declining costs of solar energy

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan to establish the first national limits on carbon pollution from power plants will continue to motivate renewable energy growth. Wind and solar energy will play a major role in achieving the emissions cuts required, and carbon policies like the Clean Power Plan will be important to ensure that low-carbon resources are prioritized over higher-emitting power plants.

The benefits of solar power are needed now

Clean energy growth and the transition to a low-carbon electric grid are vital goals for the United States. There will be technical challenges to completing this transformation, but multiple studies state that integrating high levels of renewables into our electric grid is achievable. This is also being demonstrated in the real world, as many states are already incorporating wind and solar, including in Texas, where wind supplies over 45 percent of the state’s total energy demand on multiple occasions, and in Iowa, as the state now gets 31 percent of its annual power from wind.

If you want to move into the future and join the solar revolution, or if you want to find out what solar panels are right for you, go to HahaSmart.com and try our price checker tool. You can see how much a system will cost, and how much you can save over the next 20 years. 

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