How much CO2 does one solar panel create?

[n2doc]

Yes, it's true that making solar panels creates carbon dioxide, but over the life of a solar installation it produces on average of 30x less CO2.


Whenever I sing the praises of solar PV as a means to hugely reduce U.S. carbon emissions while strengthening the security of the grid, I get people complaining that I'm not disclosing the carbon impacts of solar panel production.

So let's get this straight.. solar panels are at least 20x better on the climate than coal, kWh for kWh. I say at least because the most often cited report is by Danish utility Vattenfall from 1999. It looks at only 3 countries -- Japan, Sweden and Finland -- all of which are fairly dark and dreary, and it does not account for recent advances in PV production (new solar panels are significantly more efficient).

Based on that study, solar PV works out to about 50g of CO2 per kWh compared to coal's 975g of CO2 per kWh, or about 20x "cleaner."


more

http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/blogs/how-much-co2-does-one-solar-panel-create


Here's a chart of "peak sun hours" in the U.S. (a numerical equivalent for the amount of time that the sun averages 1 kWh per m2 of Intensity)

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Thanks for this info.

[drmeow]

2. I love my 5.2 kW system in AZ! n/t