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Solar Panels: Another Exercise in Magical Thinking

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I believe it’s high time that we put to rest the myth that solar panels are “sustainable”, “green” and “renewable” once and for all. They are none of this. Contrary to common sense, what photovoltaic panels generate is not electricity, but another round of “problems to solve”. Make no mistake, it is a fascinating technology, but there is a much better, simpler way to harness the power of the sun, one that doesn’t involve the pillaging of the entire planet.

Solar is the future, but not the way you are told.

I have to say, I’m baffled by the lack of technical understanding on display in the “renewables” and “electrification” space. Statistical data is thrown around about continuously improving EROEIs (Energy Return on Energy Invested) and falling costs like there is no tomorrow. These calculations, however, are based on a very-very limited understanding of how solar panels are manufactured, while completely dismissing a range of inputs essential for the creation of this magical technology.

I mean isn’t it magic, that you put a shiny black (or blue) slab of glass on your roof and it generates electricity out of thin air? After all we shouldn’t be surprised then, that now there are so many of them being installed in the hope of lowering electricity bills, that their continued deployment now threatens the very service they meant to make cheaper and more accessible. Apparently no one warned unsuspecting users that magic only works at small scale (usually in a sanctuary called a ‘lab’ and performed by magicians wearing white robes) and that a free lunch remains to be what it is: a pie in the sky.

Some reckoning is in due order.

So, let’s start with the basics, shall we? First, let’s take a look at what these solar panels are made of. Going by their weight, the product’s heaviest component is the protective glass cover and the aluminum framing holding it all together. The essence of the technology, where magic happens — the set of silicon wafers glued to the backside of the glass — actually weighs less than 10% of the total weight of a panel. Now you just need to add some wiring to conduct the electricity away from the panel and you are all set! (OK. Almost.)

Here is where things get tricky. The manufacturing (and not the assembly) of all of these components is what takes a brutal amount of energy. In order to be melted, glass for example, needs to be heated to somewhere between 1500 to 1700°C (2700–3100°F), a temperature range wholly outside electric resistance heating and way above readings from Fukushima’s molten reactor cores. In other words: something only achievable by burning fossil fuels (mostly natural gas) and hydrogen. (As to why hydrogen is not the best idea, read my earlier post on the topic.) Melting and pouring glass into sheets is also not something you do on an on-off basis: it is a 24/7 operation. An abrupt loss of heat can easily lead to glass ‘freezing’ into the furnace and the onto other parts of the equipment, making it impossible to remove by means other than using dynamite and jackhammers.

Then comes aluminum: it is somewhat easier to melt and work with — once you’ve got a clean slab to manufacture sheets from — but making pure aluminum from its ore (bauxite) takes 17 kWh of energy per each kilogram of metal. Again, this is not something you do in an intermittent mode. Smelting is a sustained operation, one that is so energy hungry that most smelters usually have their own coal fired power plants, literally next door.

The raw materials (sand for glass and bauxite for aluminum) themselves are not coming free of charge either, of course. Both of these need to be mined and shoveled onto trucks by huge diesel powered machinery (no, batteries and hydrogen won’t do it here either), then transported to a factory, where the above mentioned melting and smelting happens. Well, as usual, no oil means no mining (at scale), and thus no raw materials for those oh-so-shiny magic panels on your roof. (By the way, the same goes to the glue holding the panel together: it is made from petroleum, just like many other chemicals and all the plastics we use in the industry.)

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