Energy Transition And Circular Economy In The Netherlands
The Netherlands has a goal to become almost climate neutral in 2050 the aim is to emit 95% less CO compared to 1990. In 2030 the country aims to lower CO emissions by at least 49%, and possibly as high as 55% depending on the ambition of the rest of the EU. This requires enormous efforts in many areas: industry, built environment, agriculture and land use, transportation, and electricity supply. At present, negotiations are being held with key stakeholders in these five areas to deliver the national Climate Agreement.
In addition to becoming climate neutral, the Netherlands aims to become circular. Goals have been set for this ambition as well: the country wants to be 100% circular in 2050. Although it is difficult to find a clear measure for circularity, the goal is to reduce primary raw material use by 50% in 2030. Growing dependence on raw materials was one of the reasons for this agenda, as well as rapid increase in raw material use. According to the national circular economy program,³ of the 54 critical materials for Europe, 90% is imported, mostly from China. The Netherlands imports around 68% of its raw materials from abroad.
Uncertainty In Mining Production
The reserves of critical metals are not always clear, and rely on a number of factors.
- Dependency on other metals: A number of critical metals known as minor metals can only be produced in combination with other, more common metals. Without the production of these common metals, the production of critical metals is not economically viable. For example, tellurium is a byproduct of the refining process of copper, and indium is a byproduct of the refining process of zinc.
- Slow scaling of production: Opening a new mine takes about 10 to 20 years. This time is required for preliminary research, the construction of infrastructure, and environmental permits, etc. Therefore, if demand rapidly increases, supply cannot quickly follow suit.
What People Use To Install Solar Panels On A Metal Roof
There are a couple of primary methods that people use when installing solar panels on metal rooftops. They are as follows:
- Thin Laminate Panels. If you have solar panels that are made of a thin laminate film, then youre in luck. These can usually be stuck or even glued onto the roof without a problem.
- Rack Mounted Panels. You may need to have specialized racks for this, but they are able to be used and you wont have to worry about drilling through your shingles. This is only a method that can be used with simple metal roofs.
- Strip And Go. This unique attachment style requires the installers to have a roofer onboard. They will need to remove a portion of your roof and then adding asphalt shingles to the area where the metal plates once were. This gives the roof the appearance of having solar panels built directly into it.
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Cadmium In Your Home Now
Do you have a battery-powered tool, like a drill or dustbuster? Thereâs a good chance that it has a nickel-cadmium battery. But thereâs little risk to you, because itâs safely packaged inside a durable housing. When the product has reached the end of its life, you can take the battery to a Home Depot or Loweâs and recycle it.
With proper lifecycle handling, thereâs no reason that CdTe solar panels canât be considered just as safe as these other common consumer products.
Overview Of Metal Requirements For Each Technology
Renewable energy and storage technologies typically have high and diverse metal requirements. Moreover, there are often competing technologies or component technologies, which add to the complexity of material considerations. The key metals used for solar PV, wind power, batteries, and EV are discussed below.
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Research In Solar Cells
Perovskite solar cells are solar cells that include a perovskite-structured material as the active layer. Most commonly, this is a solution-processed hybrid organic-inorganic tin or lead halide based material. Efficiencies have increased from below 5% at their first usage in 2009 to 25.5% in 2020, making them a very rapidly advancing technology and a hot topic in the solar cell field. Perovskite solar cells are also forecast to be extremely cheap to scale up, making them a very attractive option for commercialisation. So far most types of perovskite solar cells have not reached sufficient operational stability to be commercialised, although many research groups are investigating ways to solve this. Energy and environmental sustainability of perovskite solar cells and tandem perovskite are shown to be dependent on the structures. The inclusion of the toxic element lead in the most efficient perovskite solar cells is a potential problem for commercialisation.
How Solar Panels Are Made
Solar panels are made of monocrystalline or polycrystalline silicon solar cells soldered together and sealed under an anti-reflective glass cover. Once light hits the solar cells, the photovoltaic effect starts, and electricity is created. The five key steps in making a solar panel are:
1. Make the solar cells
2. Solder solar cells together to create a panel
3. Install a backsheet, front glass layer, and frame
4. Install a junction box
5. Quality testing
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Summary Of The Above Materials
Solar cell manufacturing involves lots of different materials. Many of these are exotic and have only achieved fame due to the emergence of the solar power industry.
The actual list of materials in a solar panel is primarily dictated by the type of solar cells it contains. As we explained in this article, these might be silicon-based solar cells or thin film cells using different materials. These might include cadmium telluride or copper indium gallium selenide .
How Much Does It Cost To Install Solar Panels On A Roof
This actually varies greatly depending on the wattage of your system. Most homes in the United States will have systems that are between 3kW to 8kW in rating, with 6Kw being the most common. A typical system will cost between $2.50 to $3.50 to install, though some may charge extra due to the presence of metal roofing.
A typical solar panel is pretty large, often upwards of 400 square feet. This means that a typical installation can range between $9,000 to $28,000 depending on the wattage as well as the overall size of the panels. While the range itself is high, you can expect a price tag of around $19,000 for panels on a metal roof.
If the price of solar panels is intimidating, dont panic. They pay for themselves in both tax rebates as well as decreased electricity bills. In fact, many companies will even help you finance them. When in doubt, just ask what is available to you.
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Our Dependency Increases Every Year
Use of critical metals continues to grow at a rapid pace. This is most evident in consumer electronics, military applications, and other technical equipment in industrial applications. The growth of the global middle class from 1 billion to 3 billion people will only further accelerate this growth. Reuse and recycling possibilities will be limited for the next decades: recycling stocks will be insufficient due to the products currently being in use. We will therefore remain primarily reliant on new metal production.
In addition, new technologies are being developed around the world, with new and unique functionalities. The fact that most of these new technologies also require critical metals is often not taken into account. New technological developments therefore increase our reliance on critical metals, further increasing long-term supply risks.
If Solar Panels Are So Clean Why Do They Produce So Much Toxic Waste
Bell Labs, 1954. Solar Panel Waste, 2014
Bell Labs & PV Cycle
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The last few years have seen growing concern over what happens to solar panels at the end of their life. Consider the following statements:
- The problem of solar panel disposal will explode with full force in two or three decades and wreck the environment because it is a huge amount of waste and they are not easy to recycle.
- The reality is that there is a problem now, and its only going to get larger, expanding as rapidly as the PV industry expanded 10 years ago.
- Contrary to previous assumptions, pollutants such as lead or carcinogenic cadmium can be almost completely washed out of the fragments of solar modules over a period of several months, for example by rainwater.
Were these statements made by the right-wing Heritage Foundation? Koch-funded global warming deniers? The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal?
None of the above. Rather, the quotes come from a senior Chinese solar official, a 40-year veteran of the U.S. solar industry, and research scientists with the German Stuttgart Institute for Photovoltaics.
With few environmental journalists willing to report on much of anything other than the good news about renewables, its been left to environmental scientists and solar industry leaders to raise the alarm.
The Trouble With Solar Waste
Destroys Solar Farm in Puerto Rico
Bob Meinetz
Maharashtra, India, 2014
EP
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Annual Aluminium Demand From Solar Could Rise By 35x
We estimate the average aluminium content of a PV system at 21kg per kW. In CSP systems the intensity of aluminium use is more than double that, totalling around 47kg per kW. As you can see from the chart below, in our base case that translates into aluminium demand in the solar sector of almost 4.6 Mt by 2040. On a 1.5 °C pathway, under our AET-1.5 scenario, it could be as much as 10 Mt increasing solars share of total aluminium consumption from 3% to 12.6% in 2040.
Aluminiums potential doesnt end there, since several elements of CSP systems which currently rely heavily on steel could switch instead to aluminium-based designs. Given steels cost advantage in applications where weight isnt an issue the degree of substitution is uncertain. However, its worth noting that a complete switch to aluminium would increase demand for the metal by at least 50%.
Whats more, solar power has the potential to decarbonise the electricity used in aluminium production, a process which is extremely carbon-intensive. . The United Arab Emirates will soon be the first country to use solar energy in aluminium smelting, with a pilot project set to produce 40,000 tonnes per year of aluminium using 560,000 MWh of solar power. If scaled up, this approach would create a positive circularity between the use of solar power to produce aluminium and solar power as itself a component of aluminium demand.
Bottom Line: Choose Rohs Solar Panels If Youre Concerned But Solar Energy Makes The Environment Cleaner
To be clear, while the health risks from solar panels are extremely low, that isnt to say that there are zero toxicity concerns, even with panels made with c-Si. In addition, at the end of their life, solar panels will add to our e-waste problem, which is a legitimate environmental and health concern. Fortunately, solar panel recycling is an industry that is growing and will become significant over the next decade or two.
If you want to be extra careful about health and safety issues, look for solar panels that voluntarily meets RoHS standards.
Bottom line: despite the real e-waste problem, solar panels actually help reduce the amount of toxic materials in our environment, such as mercury.
Mercury is one of the most common heavy metal pollutants – itâs the reason why pregnant women are advised to limit their intake. The reason for that mercury pollution? 42% of it is from coal-fired power plants. This means that by choosing solar energy, youâre actually helping to reduce heavy metal pollution in the environment.
If you want to learn more about the environmental benefits of solar panels, including conventional c-Si cells, read our article on the topic.
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Global Critical Metal Demand For Wind And Pv
When considering a global perspective, the critical metal demand for our future renewable electricity production is significant. This graph shows the annual metal demand for the six most critical metals, compared to the annual production. The dotted line represents present-day annual production.
- Future annual critical metal demands of the energy transition surpass the total annual critical metal production.
- Exponential growth in renewable energy production capacity is not possible with present-day technologies and annual metal production. As an illustration: in 2050, the annual need for Indium will exceed the present-day annual global production twelvefold.
- To be able to realize a renewable energy system, there is a need to both dematerialize renewable electricity production technologies and increase global annual production.
Method
The growth curves of global wind and PV capacity are based on the IPCC SR15-models which project a temperature rise below 2 degrees.¹ Averaging these models results in a projected capacity for both wind and PV. Subsequently, per unit of installed capacity, the critical metal demand was calculated.
Note: This diagram shows the mining origins of metals. Four metals are extracted as companion metals and are refined as byproducts other metals refinery processes. For these the location of the refinery is shown.
Biohybrid Solar Cell: How Efficient Are In Panels
A biohybrid solar cell is a new kind of cell that has come up recently. A cell is the most important component of a solar panel. With each one cell destroyed or malfunctioned, it could bring down the working of the entire panel. But is a biohybrid solar cell that efficient? If so, how useful is it? Find out everything about solar cells below!
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You Can’t Have Solar Without Silver
With a history that dates back more than 5,000 years, silver has been an incredibly valuable metal through the ages. It was once used as a trading currency along the Asian spice routes and was even the standard for U.S. currency for a while. However, the precious metal holds far more value than just as a currency. In fact, more than half of the world’s silver is actually used for industrial purposes as it is used in X-rays, low-e windows, and even solar panels. As it turns out, even solar energy wouldn’t work the same way if it wasn’t for silver.
Making solar shine
Silver is a unique metal. It has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of all metals, and it’s the most reflective. These physical properties make it a highly valued industrial metal, especially when used in solar cells.
Silver is actually a primary ingredient in photovoltaic cells, and 90% of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, which are the most common solar cell, use a silver paste. What happens is that when sunlight hits the silicon cell it generates electrons. The silver used in the cell works as a conductor to collect these electrons in order to form a useful electric current. The silver then transports the electricity out of the cell so it can be used. Further, the conductive nature of silver enhances the reflection of the sunlight to improve the energy that’s collected. Therefore, if it wasn’t for silver solar wouldn’t be as efficient in turning sunlight into energy.
Final thoughts
Solar Panels And Silicon
PV cells contain semiconductor materials that absorb light and transfer it to electrons that form an electric current. Silicon is still the dominant semiconductor metal used in solar cells, accounting for more than 90% of the market. Thin-film technologies account for the remaining share, in the form of copper indium gallium di-selenide and cadmium telluride .
Solar panels using crystalline silicon-based semiconductors are the most efficient, with a maximum achieved rate of 26.7%, while CIGS cells have anefficiency record of 21.4% and CdTe has arecord of 22.1%, although efficiencies are slightly lower outside of lab conditions.
As the adoption of solar energy grows, demand for silicon for PV panels could rise to 807,500 tons by 2040, up from 390,00 tons in 2020, according to the IEAâsprojections. If thin-film technologies gain more market share from silicon, demand for cadmium and tellurium could rise as much as sevenfold, while demand for gallium could reach 10 times more than current production.
Prices for polysilicon, the form of silicon metal used in PV panels, have climbed over the past year as demand has outpaced supply and disruption to production at facilities in China has further tightened the market. Other minor metal prices have also risen on supply constraints during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Solar panel via www.futureatlas.com
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Comparison With Other Studies
A large number of studies have examined scenarios for renewable energy and storage technologies that will mitigate climate change. In recent years, there has also been an upsurge in studies of mineral criticality, which have paralleled the present study in terms of the high penetration of renewable and storage technologies and the potential constraints that certain minerals may impose. This increased interest has been prompted to some extent by Chinas rare earth export restrictions of 20092011, which reflect the sense that mineral supply chains are still quite insecure. Most of these studies have addressed specific technologies or specific countries or regions, rather than global climate targets. A number of studies have specifically and directly addressed the Paris Agreement targets , although the modelling frameworks have been slightly different. Some of the authors of the present chapter have been involved in these studies .
The results for silver are in the middle of the range of results given by other studies. Our scenario includes a higher installed capacity of PV in 2050 than the other studies. However, this study also assumes a lower metal intensity than previous studies, because new data have been published based on the current material use by the PV industry .
