Chinese solar panels have high carbon footprint
June 12, 2014 Category Alternative energy, Environment
The manufacture of Chinese solar panels exported to Europe produces a carbon footprint twice the size of those made in Europe, a U.S. study has found. It says this is because China has fewer environmental and efficiency standards and generates more electricity from coal and other non-renewable sources. The study was conducted by Northwestern University and the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and published in the Solar Energy Journal. “It takes a lot of energy to extract and process solar-grade silicon, and in China that energy tends to come from dirtier and less-efficient energy sources than it does in Europe,” said Seth Darling, a co-author of the report and Argonne scientist. The study analyzed the “embedded” energy in Chinese-made solar panels, from mining of raw materials, the manufacturing process to shipping the finished products. “While it might be an economically attractive option to move solar-panel manufacturing from Europe to China, it is actually less sustainable from the lifecycle energy and environmental perspective,” said You Fengqi, Assistant Professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University and an author of the paper. A Chinese-produced solar panel made from silicon and installed in sunny southern Europe would need to be used for 20% to 30% longer than a European-made panel to produce enough energy to offset the higher carbon emissions of its production. Li Yan, Greenpeace’s East Asia climate and energy campaign manager, said China’s high use of coal for electricity meant its factories were much dirtier than those in most European countries, where renewable and nuclear energy were more common. China is the world’s largest maker of solar panels, accounting for more than 60% of the total, according to data from the China Photovoltaic Industry Alliance. The study’s authors propose a carbon tariff on Chinese solar panels of between €105 and €129 a ton of carbon dioxide to offset the emissions. China did not have specific environmental and energy limits for solar-panel makers until 2010, when the central government moved to curb the blind expansion of the industry. Last year the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) updated the requirements, setting limits on energy consumption and emissions. By the end of the year, 109 companies accounting for 74% of solar panel production met those requirements. A further 74 companies have since met the target.
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