this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2023
52 points (94.8% liked)

Solarpunk technology

2298 readers
104 users here now

Technology for a Solar-Punk future.

Airships and hydroponic farms...

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
poVoq@slrpnk.net
KeraKali@slrpnk.net
bot@slrpnk.net
52
Truly sustainable solar panels (solar.lowtechmagazine.com)
submitted 9 months ago by ecoelectrify@slrpnk.net to c/technology@slrpnk.net
25 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Solar panels have always bothered me because they require such intense manufacturing and usage of scarce resources. TLDR of article: "Many people will argue that if low-tech solar panels are less efficient, we would need more solar panels to produce the same power output. Consequently, the resources saved by low-tech production methods would be compensated by the extra resources to build more solar panels. However, efficiency is only crucial when we take energy demand for granted, sacrificing some efficiency may gain us a lot in sustainability."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] activistPnk@slrpnk.net 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

PBR ran a documentary that showed how solar panels were made: by “smelting” quartz with coal, and the harmful emissions from that process which are overlooked in most conversations around solar panels. So indeed this older design of just using two dissimilar metals seems superior in terms of production.