Environment & Sustainability
Solar technologies offer a number of environmental benefits, including the reduction of harmful pollutants and carbon emissions in comparison to fossil fuel-based energy sources. Climate change, sustainability and recycling are all major areas of focus of the solar industry, which is taking steps to address environmental impacts throughout the lifecycle of solar products and projects.
Climate Change
Solar energy plays an important role in transitioning the U.S. to a low-carbon, sustainable future. Solar technologies can provide innovative, cost-effective solutions to reduce emissions in a number of sectors of the economy.
Keep ReadingRecycling & End-of-Life Considerations for PV
The falling cost of solar has made renewable energy accessible to more people than ever before and has resulted in an exponential increase in solar adoption. As such, end-of-life management is important for all PV technologies to ensure clean energy solutions are a sustainable component of the energy economy for future generations.
Keep ReadingEnvironmental Impacts of Utility-Scale Solar
There are a number of environmental factors related to the construction and maintenance of utility-scale solar power plants, including water use, habitat conservation, and land use.
Deploying more solar energy will sharply reduce the carbon, sulfur and mercury pollution that come from burning fossil fuels, saving approximately 60,000 American lives each year.
Related News
A Solar Heating & Cooling Renaissance?
As discussions about how to address climate change intensify, a frequently overlooked contributor to the global crisis are emissions from heating and cooling the air and water in homes, businesses and industrial facilities. Many might think that the power and transportation sectors are the only areas for improvement, but the global building and construction sectors are responsible for nearly 40% of carbon emissions. To fully deal with this issue, we must address HVAC concerns.
The University of Chicago RPS “Study” Sets a Debunking-Minded #EnergyTwitter on Fire
#EnergyTwitter exploded yesterday when a story broke on what many agreed was a half-baked study out of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. We hate to even restate the bogus premise. It was that renewable portfolio standards may reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but are costly compared to other approaches to addressing climate change.
Broad Energy Coalition Condemns Action to Subsidize Failing Coal, Nuclear Plants
A diverse group of energy industry associations including energy efficiency and storage, natural gas, oil, solar and wind issued the following statement condemning the administration’s draft plan to bail out coal and nuclear plants across the country.