Climate change is in a slow, relentless process of disrupting capitalism and the world as we know it. It came from the industrial burning of fossil fuels, and then added some other sources that compound the problem. We all know that if we stop burning stuff, we can help solve climate change.
The Challenge to Solar
Given this, it is a puzzle to me as to why so many environment-oriented commenters on Medium and elsewhere argue against the feasibility of renewable energy — especially solar. “More energy goes into making solar panels than they will ever produce,” I heard several times. “They require rare-earth materials,” was another. “You can’t build industrial-scale solar,” was a third.
I’ll take the last one first. I hate to disagree, but as the former VP of Sales for a solar power company focused on industrial sales, I can tell you with absolute certainty that solar can be done and is being done — on industrial rooftops. I sold three of the five largest rooftop projects in the State of Minnesota to date — all of them over 1 MW in size, and each preventing industrial quantities of greenhouse gases.
Second, solar panels are estimated to require about 600–800 kWh to produce them, and that amount of energy is produced by the panels in 2–4 years, depending on your location and orientation to the sun. Good panels are warranted for 25 years, and most last 40 years or more. A 10–1 or 20–1 energy payback is very workable, and we know that the technology will improve. What’s more, we can produce tomorrow’s panels with yesterday’s solar array installation — there is plenty of energy to self-propagate.
With regard to rare-earth materials, current solar panel technology requires them. That technology will improve, however, and the requirement for such materials will decrease over time. In the meantime, solar panel construction will require mining operations to acquire them, along with the environmental and cultural destruction that goes with mining. Then again, continued oil production is already doing the same thing. Hence, we have two bad options — continued destruction via oil production or similar destruction via mining — but one leads to a solution whereas the other does not. As we move over to a solar renewable energy base, resolving the need for such materials is a top priority.
Batteries — There Is No Need
The next argument is against batteries, again based on current chemistry and rare earth metals needed. At this stage of solar development, most applications are grid-tied, which is to say that they have no batteries at all. Industrial-scale solar does not use batteries. The buildings on which panel arrays are built use the energy, and any excess is returned to the grid. Once on the grid, the utility directs the energy to where it is needed. This excess return further reduces the need for fossil fuels.
Batteries are rarely used because they are not yet cost-effective, and the critics are correct that this has to do with the material required, as well as the chemistry characteristics. But battery research is ongoing, and new developments will radically change battery feasibility in the future. Some are incremental improvements, and one, in particular, shows tremendous progress from IBM Research.
The industry’s incremental improvements are outlined by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) which published a report on batteries in 2019 that describes the central role of lithium-ion batteries today and the possibilities for new batteries in the future. All of them are moving past cobalt, and most are moving past lithium. According to RMI, these batteries are likely to be commercially viable by 2025. A few examples from RMI’s report include:
- Zinc Batteries: Different kinds are developing, including zinc-anode batteries and zinc alkaline batteries. The first will create a less expensive battery with an improved life cycle.
- Flow Batteries: Early flow batteries are beating out lithium-ion in certain use cases already.
- High-Temperature Batteries: RMI says: “Liquid-metal batteries could provide low-cost, long-duration grid balancing based on their safety and long life cycles and preference for active cycling, similar to traditional generators.”
The real revolution, however, appears in projects like IBM’s seawater battery. Here is how they describe it in this IBM Research blog post:
“Using three new and different proprietary materials, which have never before been recorded as being combined in a battery, our team at IBM Research has discovered chemistry for a new battery which does not use heavy metals or other substances with sourcing concerns.
“The materials for this battery are able to be extracted from seawater, laying the groundwork for less invasive sourcing techniques than current material mining methods.”
I have no idea whether or not this particular battery will take over the market. The point is that research is continuing and until the battery questions are solved, we can continue developing the solar infrastructure and reducing carbon emissions — even without batteries.
Environmentalists
I empathize with environmentalists’ argument. Mining is a profoundly destructive activity, and a future based on more extraction and mining is not the goal. However, that is not what we are building. Rather, solar technology, including the current technology for panels and batteries, is moving us toward a different future — one in which we do not burn things for the energy we need. Does there need to be mining in the short term? Yes. Because if we don’t mine, we burn, and we all know the climate catastrophe waiting for us if we don’t stop burning stuff.
Today’s technology is not good enough to get us where we need to go. But technology is in development. Panels are improving. Battery technology is the subject of enormous research and development. Successful development is essential to a carbonless future and the solution to climate change. New grid designs are being developed to transfer distributed energy production and power electric vehicles, functions the grid was not built to support. There is no question that all these areas must be improved. The point is that they are being improved, but not fast enough. What’s needed is the dedication of intelligence and energy to helping these improvements come to market faster, rather than fighting against them as anti-environmental.
If humanity does not make the transition, there will be nothing to protect because Earth will become uninhabitable. Our current technologies are bridge technologies and by using them we discover new needs, we buy ourselves time, and we develop applications in which to test the new technologies being developed. We cannot wait until it pops out of a box perfect. We must move forward to build a better future all people can embrace. Staying the course to be environmentally clean will simply doom humanity on Earth.
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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