G24 Innovations Builds First Wind-Powered Solar Panel Factory

treehugger.com:

From solar panels creating e-waste to ttoxic by-products created by the solar industry, it's clear that even though power generated from the sun beats coal any day of the week, there's no such thing as consequence-free energy. And then of course there is the age-old debate about the embodied energy of solar panels. Now one UK company is hoping to lessen these concerns, creating the world's first wind-powered solar panel factory. I'm kind of amazed nobody has done it before.

Read the whole story: treehugger.com

Comments

[Kenz300]

11:42 AM on 10/17/2010

It is time for the American public to over come the lobbying efforts by the coal and
oil industries and support clean, sustainable, alternative energy.

Wind, solar, geothermal and biofuels all need our support.

Our economic security and national security demand that we transition to
alternative fuels.

[lightningbolt]

07:51 PM on 10/08/2010

All clean renewable energy factories should run on clean renewable energy.

[Joffan]

12:59 AM on 10/07/2010

Can we get the headline verb tense cleaned up please? This has not yet happened.

[smackaroo]

08:42 PM on 10/06/2010

Perfect. Now if they could start producing wind turbines using energy from the solar panels......

[Genders]

08:26 PM on 10/06/2010

Beautiful. solar wind and waste bio fuels all now have energy and cost payback within a couple years. This is the future, and beautiful and energy rich future it is.

[myth buster]

08:03 PM on 10/06/2010

Doesn't make it clean, though. The materials in solar cells are poison and make inorganic toxic waste. No way around that.

[SolarPowerGuy]

08:22 PM on 10/06/2010

I purchased my residential solar power system in 2005. About ten years before that, I inquired about the use of selenium and organochloromethanes in the manufacture of PV panels. I'm that kind of an environmentalist.

I was told by an electrical engineer, who is also an environmentalist (and who still doesn't have his own solar panels, shame on him!) that my concerns were ten years out of date -- keep in mind that I asked my question around 1995! Even back then, the materials and manufacturing process had evolved quite a bit. Selenium was no longer used in PV panels, and the organic solvents had been almost completely replaced by water.

Once upon a time, people said that solar power was a waste because you had to put more energy into building the panels than you would ever get back. That WAS true, in the early days of the Carter Administration. Nowadays, the energy payback time for a solar PV system is about five years, and over its lifetime the system should easily generate five times the amount of power used in the manufacturing process.

It's amazing how long old news about green technology lingers in the public consciousness, as long as it's BAD news. If only we would spend one tenth the amount of time ruminating on the negative consequences of business as usual!

[NWBrunette]

01:59 AM on 10/07/2010

Thank you. F&F.

[Galong]

03:43 AM on 10/07/2010

Great reply SolarPowerGuy... fanned and faved.

The further along we go, the better and greener the technology becomes. The future is wide open and hopefully extremely green.

It's just like when folks find one questionable scientist who is fine with denying the overwhelming evidence to support AGW and uses that one instance as the solid proof that it's the biggest hoax in history. :-)

[Genders]

08:27 PM on 10/06/2010

No, they are encapsulated and recycled, solar is clean, and lots of solar doesn't even use cadmium.

[NWBrunette]

08:02 PM on 10/06/2010

I love it!

[Longtimeliberal]

07:48 PM on 10/06/2010

Great news-also newly funded solar energy

[Tom Lester]

06:42 PM on 10/06/2010

synergy! i like it. not that anyone notices but there are over five geothermal energy generating plants in the u.s. found that out from sec. chu. these could also be used to power pv cell production. and there are ones that don't need rare earth. promising.

[mothergrace]

05:10 PM on 10/06/2010

Well, of course. What did everyone think would happen? :)

[kallou22]

04:46 PM on 10/06/2010

The First Large-Scale Solar Energy Plants on Public Lands
Posted by Secretary Ken Salazar on October 05, 2010 at 06:10 PM EDT
Today, we took a big step on our nation’s path to clean energy future with the approval of the first large-scale solar energy plants ever to be built on public lands.

The Tessera Solar Imperial Valley Solar Project and the Chevron Energy Solutions Lucerne Valley Solar Project will both be built in the sunny California desert. Together, the projects could produce up to 754 megawatts of renewable energy, power 226,000 – 566,000 American homes, and support almost 1,000 new jobs.

[AntoineHuff]

03:10 PM on 10/06/2010

We should start utilizing a source of energy available to everyone, man-power. We should be able to generate energy by simply walking, jumping, seating, etc...

[MAJK]

04:55 PM on 10/06/2010

Yep. It's coming. I've seen street tiles that will be used on public walkways that will help power street signs - and I've seen roads build with solar cells in them - I've also seen gyms that use exercise equipment to power TV"s and lights.