Solar power’s effect on pollution

Global climate change is a worldwide phenomenon that must be addressed immediately in order to save the planet. Scientists now believe that their initial predictions were too optimistic concerning the menace that global warming has become. There is a dire need for an alternative energy strategy that does not poison the world. The increasing utilization of solar power has changed the world and our environment. As people worldwide feel the heat of climate change, many are excited about the skyrocketing growth of China’s emerging solar-cell industry. China is leading the way in solar production but let's not congratulate them on burning fossil fuels at a rate that is killing their urban areas. But at least they are not denying the truth as the Trump administration continues to do. Solar and other “green” technologies, by providing electricity from renewable energy sources like the sun and wind, create a little positive momentum for a world of coal-burning pollution and natural resource depletion. The problem is, a recent Washington Post article has revealed that China’s booming solar industry is not as green as once thought. Many of the solar panels that now adorn European and American rooftops have left behind a legacy of toxic pollution in Chinese towns and farmlands. The Chinese are finally accepting climate change as a reality and their national interest almost mandates that solar power must be implemented.

For more information on the pros and cons of solar see our blog

Chinese factory waste

A well known Chinese silicon manufacturer is dumping toxic factory waste directly on neighboring villages, killing crops and poisoning its citizens. Other silicon factories in China have similar issues, either because they have not installed effective pollution control equipment or they are not operating these systems at capacity. Polysilicon is a key ingredient of the sunlight-capturing wafers used in solar photovoltaic (PV) cells.

China is now the global leader in solar PV manufacture. According to the recent Worldwatch Institute report Powering China’s Development: The Role of Renewable Energy, PV production capacity in China jumped from 350 megawatts (MW) in 2005 to over 1,000 MW in 2006, with 1,500 MW estimated for 2007. Public stock offerings for several Chinese companies, some valued in the billions of dollars, have focused worldwide attention on how this industry will progress—having developed from scratch into the world’s third largest PV industry in just five short years. Much of this development, however, is driven by global demand, with over 90 percent of Chinese-made solar PV systems being exported to the western nations

New technological advancements in solar

Technologies already exist to recycle the chemical byproducts of solar-cell production, but some Chinese polysilicon plants are reducing costs by avoiding extra investment in pollution control systems. Although China will eventually benefit from green technology as well as costs decline further, currently the industry continues to tread the traditional path of “pollute first, clean up afterward.” At stake are the little-known groups in Chinese society, particularly farmers who depend on increasingly polluted lands for a living. China’s booming solar industry, while enabling blue skies elsewhere, is leaving behind a scarred landscape at home. At this stage, the environment has been the biggest casualty in China’s rapid economic growth. The irony of the recent Post exposé is that the environmental damage is not being considered seriously by Chinese industries that bear a “green” tag, and whose products support progress toward a more sustainable environment. As China becomes more industrialized and strives to meet the unending demands of a growing urban middle class, there is every reason to question how long the current state of affairs can last, and how much time it will take before businesses care enough about their impacts to truly act to help the environment.

There has never been a better time to install a solar energy system!