Most solar companies use their own solar panels to power their panel manufacturing plants so the consumption of fossil fuel derived energy to make panels is now very low and getting lower.
Co2 solar panels.
The fact is that even solar power plants have an environmental footprint on a lifecycle basis.
The second issue is how much greenhouse house gas ghg is avoided by using solar power with the typical focus on carbon dioxide co2 the most significant greenhouse gas from fossil fuel electricity generation.
National grid plc have recently estimated these ccgt plants currently emit 392g co2 kwh.
Input the solar power plant capacity.
For instance concentrated solar power csp has a footprint of 20 grams of carbon dioxide co2 per.
The above mentioned 8 460 lbs of co2 comes in at reducing the carbon emissions of 489 315 smartphones charged in a year or 157 propane cylinders used for home barbeques.
Co 2 emission reduction with solar.
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 than coal power.
If you are curious what kind of impact your solar energy is having on the environment you can use your own annual kwh solar generation and the lbs of co2 to see what amount of carbon offsetting your system is responsible for.