00:00:00
the the real massive energy source in
00:00:02
our solar system overwhelmingly is the
00:00:04
sun solar energy exceeds all other
00:00:07
energy by a factor of a trillion like
00:00:11
literally in 2020 the International
00:00:14
Energy agency confirmed in its world
00:00:17
energy Outlook publication that
00:00:19
electricity generated from solar panels
00:00:21
was cheaper than that generated from
00:00:24
coal and gas in most countries around
00:00:26
the world Nations and individuals have
00:00:29
warmed up to the idea of using solar
00:00:31
energy to meet their energy demands with
00:00:34
large scale and individual solar
00:00:36
installations seeing a sharp uptick in
00:00:39
recent years switching energy sourcing
00:00:42
from fossil fuels to solar energy could
00:00:44
surely help reduce carbon emissions but
00:00:47
won't be the ultimate Planet saving move
00:00:50
that many believed it would one day be
00:00:53
there are still many hurdles to overcome
00:00:55
with this technology including issues
00:00:58
with panel manufacturer and Mater
00:00:59
materials the lifespan and waste
00:01:02
generated energy storage and
00:01:04
transportation and localized climate
00:01:07
change possibilities the question is are
00:01:10
we creating a green future or are we
00:01:12
creating future
00:01:16
problems the sun is a massive source of
00:01:20
energy the fusion of hydrogen atoms to
00:01:23
form helium releases tremendous amounts
00:01:25
of energy into space a fraction of which
00:01:28
is received by Earth estimates suggest
00:01:31
that this fraction is about
00:01:33
174,000 tatt hours of energy but around
00:01:37
half of this or roughly 83,000 tatt
00:01:41
hours actually hits the ground in
00:01:44
comparison the global electricity
00:01:46
consumption in 2022 was a little over
00:01:49
24,000 ter
00:01:53
hours so if we were to capture energy
00:01:56
from all the sunlight that hits the
00:01:58
ground we would cover the world's
00:02:00
electricity demand and have twofold as
00:02:03
much
00:02:04
spare another form of this thought
00:02:07
experiment is to cover large deserts
00:02:09
such as the Sahara with solar panels and
00:02:12
use the electricity captured to power
00:02:15
other parts of the world with clean
00:02:17
green energy solar energy solutions are
00:02:20
ideal for solving our energy wos but
00:02:23
when one considers their practicality
00:02:26
the shortcomings of solar energy
00:02:27
technology become apparent
00:02:30
on the face of it solar panels are made
00:02:33
from the second most abundant material
00:02:35
on the planet silicon the popular
00:02:38
semiconductor material makes up
00:02:41
27.7% of the world's crust by mass
00:02:45
however silicon alone is not enough for
00:02:47
solar panels to work electricity
00:02:50
generated by solar panels needs to be
00:02:52
conducted to the storage unit a job done
00:02:55
using conducting materials such as
00:02:58
copper and silver to to make solar
00:03:00
panels cost effective they need to be
00:03:02
produced at a large scale usually done
00:03:05
by using Technologies like thin film
00:03:08
photovoltaics the production of thin
00:03:11
film solar cells requires rare metals
00:03:13
like cadmium torrium indium and others
00:03:18
in contrast to silicon's wide
00:03:20
availability tum makes up only
00:03:27
0.00001% of the Earth's crust
00:03:30
large-scale production of solar panels
00:03:33
requires larger amounts of cadmium and
00:03:35
tum which is not only an availability
00:03:38
issue but also a geopolitical one in
00:03:41
2011 prices of certain rare earth
00:03:44
materials shot up by as much as
00:03:47
750 in a single year after China clamped
00:03:51
down on their production the Asian giant
00:03:54
either produces or was involved in the
00:03:56
processing and production of 97% of Rare
00:04:00
Earth and minerals on the planet and its
00:04:03
policies have a direct impact on the
00:04:05
production of clean energy technology
00:04:07
much of the growth in the adoption of
00:04:09
solar technology around the world has
00:04:12
been fueled by the production
00:04:13
capabilities of Industries based in
00:04:15
China the clean energy industry has
00:04:18
enjoyed government support in the form
00:04:20
of subsidies and favorable policies but
00:04:23
that is now set for a major change after
00:04:25
the Chinese government announced a new
00:04:27
regulatory regime that will roll back
00:04:30
subsidy loads and make the industry less
00:04:32
profitable this could push the prices of
00:04:35
solar panels higher once again making
00:04:38
them less attractive to potential buyers
00:04:41
a policy change would not necessarily
00:04:43
happen solely for economic reasons
00:04:46
China's dominance in manufacturing and
00:04:48
Technology development in recent years
00:04:51
has boosted its Ambitions on the global
00:04:53
political stage however its tensions
00:04:56
with the US have left the global supply
00:04:59
chain on tenter Hooks and at high risk
00:05:01
of falling apart due to political
00:05:04
moves large scale plans to start solar
00:05:07
energy Farms anywhere in the world can
00:05:10
come to a grinding halt if the supply of
00:05:12
components from China stops
00:05:16
abruptly even if the Chinese dominance
00:05:18
in the supply chain were carefully
00:05:21
mitigated solar energy installation and
00:05:24
usage comes with its own problems even
00:05:27
after Decades of technological
00:05:29
development
00:05:30
solar panels power conversion efficiency
00:05:32
is around 25% at best with large amounts
00:05:36
of sunlight remaining untappable by
00:05:39
technology solar Farms have no other
00:05:41
option but to increase the scale of
00:05:43
installation to generate large power
00:05:46
output estimates from the solar energy
00:05:49
industry Association or
00:05:51
SE suggest that it takes anywhere
00:05:54
between 5 and 7 acres of land to
00:05:57
generate just one megawatt of solar
00:05:59
energy
00:06:00
conservative estimates peg this number
00:06:02
much higher to 10 acres other clean
00:06:05
energy sources like wind turbines have a
00:06:08
completely lower land use
00:06:10
requirement moreover the land remains
00:06:13
available for other purposes such as
00:06:15
residential or agricultural
00:06:17
[Music]
00:06:20
use countries with limited land
00:06:23
availability find it difficult to adopt
00:06:25
solar energy as a clean energy solution
00:06:28
with priority given to agriculture or
00:06:30
industrial usage of available
00:06:34
land even in areas where large Parcels
00:06:37
of land are available for solar energy
00:06:39
installations the energy generated from
00:06:41
the power plant has limited applications
00:06:44
photovoltaic panels convert solar energy
00:06:47
into electricity which can be used to
00:06:50
power the grid however industrial
00:06:52
applications such as high temperature
00:06:54
furnaces or L Hall transport cannot be
00:06:58
powered by solar panels
00:07:00
since solar is an intermittent source of
00:07:02
energy usually unavailable for at least
00:07:05
half of the day electricity produced
00:07:07
during the brighter parts of the day
00:07:09
needs to be stored somewhere to be used
00:07:11
when the demand for electricity is high
00:07:14
electrochemical batteries which use
00:07:17
chemicals like lead have been used in
00:07:19
the past but as the size of solar plants
00:07:22
has increased batteries with higher
00:07:24
energy storage capacity are in
00:07:27
demand lithium ion batteries are the
00:07:30
best technological solution available
00:07:32
for this but they are also extremely
00:07:35
expensive to deploy at large
00:07:38
scales although solar energy might be
00:07:41
effectively free to harvest the initial
00:07:43
setup of solar panels and energy storage
00:07:46
solutions is expensive this is the basic
00:07:49
reason solar energy isn't being
00:07:51
harvested in the world's deserts and
00:07:53
shipped to the rest of the world let's
00:07:56
examine this in more detail
00:08:00
installing solar panels in deserts would
00:08:03
eliminate all the land use issues
00:08:05
associated with solar energy and extract
00:08:07
energy from areas where the sun shines
00:08:10
the most quite literally a typical
00:08:13
photovoltaic panel installed in a solar
00:08:15
farm produces 350 Watts over 50 billion
00:08:20
such panels would need to be
00:08:22
manufactured to meet the world's energy
00:08:24
demand these 50 billion panels would
00:08:28
cover an area of 11
00:08:32
15,625 Square mil since the Sahara
00:08:35
Desert alone has an area of over 3.6
00:08:38
million square miles this whole
00:08:41
experiment could be centralized there
00:08:43
moving from the thought experiment to
00:08:45
bringing this into reality one begins to
00:08:48
see the hurdles in getting this done on
00:08:51
average installation costs for a 350 wat
00:08:54
panel along with the mounts and
00:08:56
infrastructure are about $700
00:09:00
doing so in the Sahara would definitely
00:09:03
cost a bit more at a 50% premium let's
00:09:06
round it off at
00:09:08
$1,000 installing 50 billion panels at
00:09:12
this price would balloon the project
00:09:14
cost to $50
00:09:16
trillion which is nearly 18 times the
00:09:19
size of the US economy but the project
00:09:22
would be useless if it did not have the
00:09:24
equivalently large battery pack
00:09:27
connected to it at current energy
00:09:29
storage costs that would be around $900
00:09:33
for each panel practically doubling the
00:09:36
cost of the project that's over 30 times
00:09:38
the size of the US economy even if we
00:09:41
did manage to fund such a project the
00:09:44
energy generated would still need to be
00:09:46
sent to different parts of the world so
00:09:48
there is the additional cost of building
00:09:50
a global grid but we also know sending
00:09:53
electricity over the wires involves
00:09:55
transmission losses the further away
00:09:57
from the Sahara the country is the more
00:10:00
energy it will lose by the time it
00:10:02
receives its electricity Supply making
00:10:04
it highly inefficient even if we were
00:10:07
still to proceed with the plan the
00:10:09
presence of 50 billion panels over the
00:10:11
desert would also cool the area this
00:10:14
would return rain to the area likely
00:10:17
increase vegetation and cover the panels
00:10:20
prompting a shift in the location of
00:10:22
such a power plant if a mitigation
00:10:26
strategy were put in place to avoid this
00:10:28
one inevit ability remains solar panels
00:10:31
eventually reach the end of their life
00:10:34
cycle and need replacement this brings
00:10:36
us to the last part of our problem
00:10:39
disposing of solar
00:10:41
panels the upti in solar installations
00:10:44
might be good news for the planet in
00:10:46
terms of preventing fossil fuel usage
00:10:49
but also spells impending doom a few
00:10:51
years down the line taking into account
00:10:55
that solar panels work for three decades
00:10:57
before they need to be replaced one
00:11:00
presumption that the problem will become
00:11:01
a major one by 2050 or thereabouts
00:11:05
plenty of time to come up with a
00:11:07
solution however commercial solar
00:11:10
installations have been in place for
00:11:12
well over two decades according to
00:11:14
estimates by the international renewable
00:11:17
energy agency large amounts of solar
00:11:19
panel waste will begin piling up as
00:11:21
early as 2030 the peak of solar energy
00:11:25
waste may be in the 2050s but is
00:11:27
expected to be a colossal 78 million
00:11:30
tons imagine a pile of solar waste if 50
00:11:34
billion panels were installed in the
00:11:37
Sahara a Harvard Business Review report
00:11:40
pointed out that irena's predictions
00:11:42
assume that users will continue using
00:11:44
their panels until the end of their
00:11:46
lifespan before replacing them however
00:11:50
improvements in energy conversion
00:11:52
efficiency could prompt users to dump
00:11:54
their panels earlier in favor of energy
00:11:57
efficient ones bringing forward the
00:11:59
problem of solar waste the long life
00:12:02
cycle of solar panels has discouraged
00:12:04
investment in recycling even though
00:12:07
panel production uses some expensive
00:12:09
metals like silver and copper these are
00:12:12
present in very small amounts processes
00:12:15
for their recovery are complex require
00:12:18
hazardous chemicals like strong acids
00:12:20
and increase the cost of recycling the
00:12:23
panel in comparison sending the panel to
00:12:26
a landfill is way cheaper however the a
00:12:29
number of panels that will be at the end
00:12:31
of their lives in the next decade makes
00:12:34
this untenable the presence of heavy
00:12:37
metals like cadmium and lead in the
00:12:39
panel also adds a layer of complexity to
00:12:42
the disposal problem all in all turning
00:12:45
to solar energy as the planet's Ultimate
00:12:47
Energy Solution is a massive mistake one
00:12:50
could
00:12:51
make right from production of the panels
00:12:54
to their disposal the solar energy is
00:12:56
riddled with problems that magnify with
00:12:59
increasing
00:13:00
scale however future solutions to these
00:13:03
problems cannot be
00:13:05
discounted from a cost standpoint at
00:13:08
least the $90 million Tesla provided
00:13:11
hornsdale power Reserve in South
00:13:14
Australia paid for itself in 2.5 years
00:13:17
and is currently making good profit this
00:13:20
is the largest battery plant in the
00:13:22
world which deals with the excessive
00:13:24
power generation that's being pumped
00:13:26
back into the grid from rooftop solar
00:13:28
panels in the area the initial cost
00:13:31
however doesn't factor in the panels
00:13:34
themselves as these are privately owned
00:13:36
this was a program set up to manage
00:13:38
issues with existing power
00:13:40
infrastructure rather than building an
00:13:42
entirely new one so cannot be compared
00:13:45
to the Sahara concept one:1 it also
00:13:48
doesn't address the waste manufactur or
00:13:51
geopolitical issues associated with the
00:13:53
tech either action is needed now to
00:13:56
mitigate these issues if we don't want
00:13:59
significant problem in the
00:14:01
future one could also argue that the
00:14:03
problem isn't so much the technology we
00:14:05
use as our Hunger for More Energy and
00:14:08
more things we want the same kind of
00:14:12
growth that fossil fuels made possible
00:14:14
even though we are aware of the harm
00:14:16
they have caused to the planet as a
00:14:19
civilization we do not want to taper
00:14:22
down our energy consumption or
00:14:24
consumeristic attitudes and in there
00:14:26
lies the real problem
00:14:33
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