With the high penetration of the renewable energy in our energy mix, would be there in future bad consequences on the environment, the ecosystem or the life on the earth.
The best way to answer this question is the conduct life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) of renewable energy sources such as wind, ocean's waves and tidal, bio-based sources, solar PV, etc. You can get more information to your questions from my lecture notes in green energy system that you down load from my profile under researchgate.net
To give you an example, continued use of solar PV will lead to depletion on the rare earth metals that are used to manufacture the solar PV wafers. Also, continued use of wind turbines will lead to shortage of the carbon fiber material that is used for manufacturing the blades. Currently, carbon fiber relies of the petroleum-base precursor called polyacrylonitrile (PAN).
In summary, in my lecture notes on green energy systems (I course I developed and teach at Yale University), you will find in depth discussion on the adverse environmental impacts of renewable energy sources.
Professor Yehia Khalil, Yale University, USA
Fellow of the University of Oxford, UK
Any power generation technologies known to society today have to varying degrees environmental impact. For example:
1. Pump storage hydro - Land is submerged in water when dams are built and store water. Decaying plants could emit CO2 or other forms of green house gas.
2. Geothermal - Sulphur is a by-product.
3. Wind farms - Impact on fauna and their habitat. In some cases, environmentalists point to impact of the birds' flight path, or the creation of noise pollution.
4. Solar - Fabrication of solar panels is arguably a carbon intensive process. Extensive land acreage is used that could divert its use from food production unless the solar farms are built in desert or isolated areas.
5. Wave energy - Similar to wind but mostly affecting marine fauna.
These are but a few examples. For this reason, the climate debate need to reframe the reference by starting with having a common understanding of the scope of environment impact that we are trying to address.
The best way to answer this question is the conduct life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) of renewable energy sources such as wind, ocean's waves and tidal, bio-based sources, solar PV, etc. You can get more information to your questions from my lecture notes in green energy system that you down load from my profile under researchgate.net
To give you an example, continued use of solar PV will lead to depletion on the rare earth metals that are used to manufacture the solar PV wafers. Also, continued use of wind turbines will lead to shortage of the carbon fiber material that is used for manufacturing the blades. Currently, carbon fiber relies of the petroleum-base precursor called polyacrylonitrile (PAN).
In summary, in my lecture notes on green energy systems (I course I developed and teach at Yale University), you will find in depth discussion on the adverse environmental impacts of renewable energy sources.
Professor Yehia Khalil, Yale University, USA
Fellow of the University of Oxford, UK
Dear Ricardo, thank you very much for your answer, it helped me a lot..
Dear Prof Yehia, thank you very much for your answer, I will have a deep look at your lecture notes and if I have any question I will get back to you..
Rare earths are NOT needed to make wafers for solar cells.
Use of Land: you can combine agricultural use with photovoltaics (called Agro-PV), some plants even need some shadowing as it could be provided by high-standing solar modules (e.g. for coffee plants).
Thank you very much Prof. Stefan, your book was very useful for me many years ago, this is what I am looking for to try to make all the process of generating the energy a sustainable process without causing any harm to the environment.
Best Regards
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