As the world is looking for clean energy, solar energy capacity has increased six times in the last five years. However, the production of solar panels can have negative effects on the environment, according to a new report.
Also, manufactureing the solar panels leave waste left behind. These issues could weaken the ability of solar energy to fight climate change and reduce environmental pollution.
A new ranking which lists 37 manufacturers of solar panels, called Solar Scorecard shows that some companies produce solar modules "cleaner" than others, says National Geographic.
Chinese manufacturer Trina is first, followed by SunPower from California.
Annual scorecard was created by Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC), an NGO based in San Francisco, which followed the environmental impact of high-tech industry since 1982.
It's the fifth ranking created by the organization, and show that the industry is becoming increasingly indifferent when it comes to the sustainability of its production practices.
NGO representatives hoped that this report will succeed to increase transparency in a thriving industry, which tends to focus more on survival and development than the dirty side of this source approach which, ultimately, is a clean source of energy.
Uneven data on chemicals and emissions
SVTC is based on data from manufacturers such as emissions, chemical toxicity, water use and recycling.
According to the NGO, the market share of companies willing or able to share details of their production operations is decreasing.
On the other hand, the report praises the third and fourth ranking company, Yingli, and SolarWorld respectively, because they are responding to surveys annually, which presents an ongoing commitment to sustainability.
Known companies occupy about 75% of the solar industry, but also made their way into more and more generic players, falling to less environmental impact of production, said Sheila Davis, executive director of the organization.
The NGO is also concerned by the fact that as these competitors could gain more market share, fewer companies will make sustainability a priority.
Different regulations and manufacturing practices make difficult to obtain standardized data on the environmental footprint of photovoltaic panels.
A study published in May by Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University, found that the carbon footprint of a solar panel in China is twice higher than the one in Europe because China has fewer environmental standards and more coal-fired power plants.
However, China has already seen a reaction. Jinko Solar panel manufacturer, for example, has had protests and legal action because one of its plants located in the eastern province of Zhejiang, was accused of dumping toxic waste spilled into a nearby river.
US solar manufacturers are subject to both federal and state rules that dictate, for example, what to do with toxic waste. In Europe, recent regulations were designed to reduce and eliminate hazardous electronic waste properly.
However, researchers say it is difficult to get quality data for all markets solar panels. Numbers available on the environmental impact of manufacturing solar panels from China are "quite different from those in the US and Europe," says Fengqi You, assistant professor of engineering at Northwestern University and a coauthor of the study released in May "is a problem very complicated ".
SVTC hopes that the pressures will lead to greater transparency and also to better practices in the future. "It's a new industry," says Davis. If companies adopt sustainable practices early on, she says, "then perhaps the next 10 or 15 years, solar panels that will appear on the market will replace the old ones, to be recycled."
Recycling almost non-existent so far
Currently, recycling solar panels put the following problems: not enough places to recycle old solar panels, and solar panels are not old enough to make recycling economically profitable.
Ben Santarris, SolarWorld business director, said that his company has made efforts to recycle panels, but they are not sufficient. "We have products that work yet by the standards of 1978, so we have a large flow," he said. "It's a problem, because on the one hand there is an interest in obtaining the panels to be recycled. On the other hand, there is a large market for it at the moment. "
Recycling is particularly important, says Dustin Mulvaney, assistant professor of environmental studies at the State University of San José, because "it's hard to find a PV module that does not contain at least one rare or precious metal," he said "and all have at least silver, tellurium, or indium."
SVTC stated that strives to create a first sustainability standard for solar panels. It remains to be seen whether solar companies will face an external pressure high enough to make significant changes in a business which, in terms of generated power, already has some credibility.
Moreover, SVTC representatives point out that not all solar panels are created equal in the ecologically point of view.
But there is optimism that the industry matures, solar companies will adopt stronger measures of sustainability. In just five years, from the first SVTC report, Mulvaney said he saw a change.
"When we started this, there was no information on environmental performance, except that saves us from dirty fuels," he said. "Now these companies provide sustainability reports."
