James Shanks
EN1420
Final Paper
The Hidden Costs of Green Energy In this day of steadily rising energy costs, increasing difficulty in finding readily accessible supplies of non-renewable resources, aging power production and transport facilities and environmental awareness individuals, local government and private utilities are turning towards renewable energy resources at an increasing rate. Many of these entities tout the benefit of their decisions as “green” and “environmentally friendly”. The real cost of these projects is often ignored completely either through true ignorance of the facts or in an attempt to be duplicitous about the damage that is really being done. In 2013 4,751 MW of new photovoltaic (PV) capacity was installed representing a 41 percent increase in deployment over installation levels in 2012 (Solar Industry Data, 2014).
While this might mean a reduction in non-renewable resources (referred to as NRR’s going forward) burned, it also represents a drastic increase in the use and production of numerous toxic chemicals that result from the PV manufacturing process.
According to Dustin Mulvaney, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at San Jose State University, the production of PV panels begins with the creation of Silicon wafers, a process that uses and/or produces sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide both of which are known as caustic chemicals that can be dangerous to the eyes, lungs and skin. As the production process continues corrosive chemicals like hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid and hydrogen fluoride are used along with phosphine or arsine gas in the doping of the semiconductor material. Even after these items are made, the use of toxic products continues. Mulvaney once again points out that lead is often used in solar PV electronic circuits for wiring, solder-coated copper strips, and some