Are you planning to use solar energy that comes from nature? Then how does solar energy affect the environment negatively?
All we know, solar energy is pure and doesn’t harm anything on earth. Yes, we want to go green and save the environment. It is going to happen all the time. Eco-friendly solar energy reduces climate changes, air pollution, water pollution, and eliminates the chance to produce greenhouse gases.
To catch solar energy, we use technology and technology doesn’t come only with the good. The question is, does such technology make solar energy green without giving any negative impact?
Here we are going to discuss it in detail.
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Table of Contents
Positive and Negative Impact of Using Solar Energy
Solar panels cut lots of bad things from your life and the environment as well but is really that green? We already know how does solar energy help the environment but it also has an environmental impact. There are lots of arguments about it. It’s hard to come to a conclusion. We can discuss it, make a noise about it.
Some of the critics said that it requires more energy and fossil fuel-burning equipment. But the requirement is more than it saves.
Another best argument is its production process. It needs toxic chemicals for manufacturing that is not good at all for both humans and the environment.
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Does Solar Energy Affect The Environment?
Of course, finding the negative effect of solar energy and the argument related to it not going to end soon. Using solar energy and technology related to it promising something to us that can make our future better.
First of all, we need to understand the complete process of solar energy and how it works. Day after day, the cost of installing solar panels and using solar energy is dropping.
Lots of businesses and houses using solar energy not only to save money but also considering its environmental side. It helps to decrease the ecological footprint.
As an important energy solution, it has some environmental drawbacks. Based on the research, we divided all these drawbacks into three categories.
Use of Land
Another thing to have in mind, installing and using a solar system is simple but the solar panel doesn’t. Solar panels always come in a bigger shape. Because of the scale, it takes up a huge space.
For the large utility solar panel, it’s hard to imagine how much space you need. Consuming lots of space causes environmental degradation. Even it causes habitat loss. May it’s not as bad as we think but it has a great impact on the local area.
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First, covering such space to use solar panels minimizes the scope of local vegetation growth. Ultimately, it dropped the rate of agriculture in this area significantly. We don’t expect to damage agriculture by such things.
In this case, wind energy is the best to use. It lets everyone share land instead of occupying it. Most of us use small-scale solar panels. So, it doesn’t need much space to set as a large-scale panel.
The question arises when the solar panel is used for industrial purposes. They need a lot of space otherwise producing energy becomes a challenge for them.
Another drawback of using solar energy as well as the solar panel is, it harms the beauty of nature which also seems a disturbance for the local community.
Heavy Use of Water
Apart from the use of solar panels, it required different processes to manufacture. Some of these are water-intensive processes. Solar energy doesn’t require any water to use. But it is needed when manufacturing companies producing solar panels.
It’s true that more than 40 percent of freshwater used to produce electricity. But it was reused in many ways. The problem arises when a company produces a huge amount of solar panels.
Definitely, it’s going to give some negative impact and can create some pressure on local water resources.
Employing Toxic Chemical
Manufacturing solar panels requires different toxic chemicals. All these chemicals are toxic enough to make a person sick and the environment polluted.
Most of the government imposes laws and regulations to use chemical and product solar panels. Some of these are strictly followed by the manufacturer. Sometimes they act as reckless to use all these chemicals.
As a result, it becomes a reason for significant health risks as well as the worker and the environment. If you don’t know what types of chemicals need to be used to produce solar panels, then look at the below.
- Nitric acid
- Hydrogen fluoride
- Hydrochloric acid
- Sulfuric acid
- Acetone
- Trichloroethane, etc.
Solar energy always keeps us pushing to use it and go green. As a result, it became the demand of time to use solar panels. However, the solar panel doesn’t come along. It needs solar grade silicon and semiconductors.
As you know, this process is not possible to complete without using hazardous chemicals. After the use, all these chemicals aren’t disposed of properly by the manufacturer. The disposing system depends on the country of origin, rules, and regulations.
To save the cost, they don’t go for the proper disposal. That’s why all these dumped chemicals kept a bad impact on the environment.
Problem of Recycling
The truth is, seeking more uses of solar energy means using more solar panels. The solar panel doesn’t last for long. It’s durable but not durable enough to provide service infinite times. It breaks and we need to do something with it. Still, no one has thought of recycling all this garbage yet.
In their eyes, it’s not a major issue to deal with. As all of these broken solar panels are e-waste, they required proper disposal. It will put us at risk at some point in the future that also becomes an environmental concern.
Global Warming Emissions
In one way we can use solar energy and that is using the solar panel. Generating electricity using solar energy is not a warning for us. There is something more related to it. Considering solar life-cycle, it costs a lot and harms our environment.
What we can include in the solar life-cycle? All these are given below.
- Manufacturing of solar panels and other components
- Transportation of materials
- Installation
- Maintenance
- Decommissioning and dismantlement
Think about all these parts. Some researchers estimate the loss based on the life-cycle. The emission of carbon dioxide is between 0.07 to 0.18 pounds. The emission was calculated perfectly and it’s equivalent to per hour kilowatt.
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Positive Environmental Impact of Solar Energy
The number of reasons for using solar energy as well as solar panel is limitless. We have got the motivation to use our own electricity using solar energy.
It minimizes lots of things in our life including cost, outage of power, and many more. Using solar energy has lots of positive impacts on the environment.
No doubt, it’s one of the most eco-friendly ways to use energy. We’ve discussed some environmental advantages of using solar energy.
Reduce Gas (Greenhouse gas and CO2)
Another thing to like about solar energy is it reduces greenhouse gas and CO2 in mentionable numbers and the number is 80%. This impact is substantial. It’s amazing to hear, this is equivalent to over 150000 pounds of burned coal.
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Make Your Vehicle Electric
When you find a source of infinite energy to generate electricity, then you should go green. Even it can change your vehicle power management system. Don’t burn fuel anymore to keep your vehicle on the road. Most of the vehicles produce CO2. Using electric vehicles offset such emissions.
Reduces Water Pollution
Solar Energy comes to a planet-saving thing for us. This source of unlimited power offers us the biggest environmental advantage. Water is a great element to manufacture components of solar panels. This process wastes tons of water.
If you think differently, this wastage of water is less than traditional electricity sources. We are talking about other energy sources like nuclear plants, natural gas, and coal-fired facilities. All these facilities need lots of water for different purposes. It’s using water more than producing solar panels.
Reduce The Pressure On Other Source of Energy
We don’t forget to talk about one of the most important positive impacts of using solar energy. We are still using different sources of power because our community is growing fast. Following the growth, the demand for power is growing respectively.
At this point, it’s proven that we are now less dependent on other sources of power after using solar energy. People are enjoying the advantages of solar energy and its increasing. So, we don’t need to focus on other sources as we did in the past.
FAQ:
Answer: Solar energy system is pure and green energy. It absorbs the power from the sun. So, it prevents air pollution and greenhouse gases as well.
Answer: Researched saying that, the solar panel is good for the environment but it produces more greenhouse gases. Even the rate is more than using gas or coal for electricity.
Answer: No it’s not dangerous to live near a solar farm at all. But living too close will affect your both and mental health.
Answer: Using a solar power system with a battery, you can minimize the cost. When you use the power of the sun to run your home appliances with the highest electricity rates, it will reduce the cost of the local utility bill. You can also opt for net metering to minimize your electricity bills.
Answer: As a renewable energy, solar power reduces our local utility bill. This energy can be used in different applications. It also needs low maintenance costs as well.
Conclusion:
From the above discussion, now we can think about solar energy differently. Yes, It comes with the pros and cons too. But, all of the positive impacts on the environment using solar energy definitely give us some relief.
Everything we considered to discuss all the negativity and positivity of this source of natural energy. Lots of things are still questionable like manufacturing, using, installing, and disposal. So, staying concerned about how does solar energy affect the environment negatively is really legit.
Based on the use, we can ignore the negative side of solar energy. It’s best to save our environment and make us independent to use power.
Finally, we can say, we are enjoying positive benefits because of the role of solar energy in our environment.