Effects of Solar Power Plants on the Environment

The sun provides a tremendous resource for generating clean and sustainable renewable energy without toxic pollution or global warming emissions.

Solar Power Plants are growing across the globe at an alarming rate, and every year more and more land is being utilized for the establishment and development of solar panels. The question that arises is, do they have any adverse effects on the environment? The answer is yes, however small they may be, they do affect the environment and we cannot overlook this fact. Read on further for some of the crucial effects that Solar panels have on our environment.

1) Land quality deterioration

Photovoltaic systems need 3.5 to 10 acres per megawatt whereas Concentrated Solar Power systems work on a range of 4 to 16.5 acres per megawatt, therefore large quantity of land is being used. This can be solved by using poor-grade areas like barren fields, mining sites which are out of use or transportation corridors.

2) Higher water requirement

Solar power plants need water to cool the structure and the quantity of water required depends on the solar power plant design, its location and also the cooling system type. Solar Plants need typically about 600 to 650 gallons of water for every megawatt-hour of electricity generated.

3) Hazardous Materials

Harmful components such as sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrogen fluoride,  hydrochloric acid, acetone and 1,1,1-trichloroethane are released while manufacturing the photovoltaic cells. They are also a health risk for workers that work there as they continuously inhale the silicon dust.

So while solar power is a perfect solution, it is much more environmentally friendly than producing electricity from non-renewable sources, especially coal. Ultimately, whether or not using solar is a good idea in your community depends on variables such as solar irradiance and other renewable energy sources.