Um, oops?
(Digital Journal) Solar cells do not offset greenhouse gases or curb fossil fuel use in the United States according to a new environmental book, Green Illusions (June 2012, University of Nebraska Press), written by University of California – Berkeley visiting scholar Ozzie Zehner. Green Illusions explains how the solar industry has grown to become one of the leading emitters of hexafluoroethane (C2F6), nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). These three potent greenhouse gases, used by solar cell fabricators, make carbon dioxide (CO2) seem harmless.
Hexafluoroethane has a global warming potential that is 12,000 times higher than CO2, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It is 100 percent manufactured by humans, and survives 10,000 years once released into the atmosphere. Nitrogen trifluoride is 17,000 times more virulent than CO2, and SF6, the most treacherous greenhouse gas, is over 23,000 times more threatening.
The solar photovoltaic industry is one of the fastest-growing emitters of these gases, which are now measurably accumulating within the earth’s atmosphere according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A NOAA study shows that atmospheric concentrations of SF6 have been rising exponentially. A paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters documents that atmospheric NF3 levels have been rising 11 percent per year.
So, the measures meant to stop globull warming actually create real anthropogenic global warming.
(via Marc Morano)
That’s crazy!
My two neighbors put in solar panels because they have 5 bedroom houses and $800 – $1100 per month electric bills, in no small part thanks to California’s necessarily skyrocketed energy contracts. The solar company told my neighbor that he would save $400 – $500 per month with solar. I checked yesterday = he’s saving $200 per month. Don’t believe solar salesmen and politicians and the AGW faithful.
[…] Pirate’s Cove: Solar Cells Linked To Greenhouse Gas 12,000 Times Worse Than CO2 […]
I think one of the issues with solar is that it is portrayed as being a big money saver as pushed by a combo of the government and the power companies. But, then there are all these weird leases, if your roof needs repair it will cost you a ton and you need permission from the power companies, and it is ugly as sin. The savings aren’t there.
Once someone comes up with a way of truly capturing solar for individual homes with way of storing energy, and it being cheap, the use will explode. And, yeah, they have to find a way to do away with all the caustic chemicals used to make the panels.
Yes, they told my brother-in-law he could sell back the “excess power” to the electric company. Right. His is a summer house and all spring summer and fall long people are in it- using power like water. And even the water uses power- he has a well. The catch is, it is a two story rancher- the first is below ground and you need the AC on ALL SUMMER LONG down there as well as two de-humidifiers. The upstairs needs a whole house fan that is on all summer. And, the backyard with the pool that uses power as well as a hot tub, has a sitting down view of the whole roof- which would then be covered in ugly panels glaring at us…
Yup- we convinced him it would not be worth the money. But I never thought it was worth a darn for many other reasons!