Resources Used To Make Solar Panels

Solar panels have little metal edges around the panels.

Resources used to make solar panels.

As seen in the video my junction box came with a blocking diode which prevents the backflow of current when you have the solar panel hooked up to a battery. This results in less waste in terms of heat and energy. The metallurgical grade silicon is exposed to hydrochloric acid and copper which produce trichlorosilane gas. I also installed a junction box onto the back of the solar panel since most solar panels include a junction box.

There s the direct use of energy to manufacture and transport the panels and their components. Hydrogen is then used to reduce this gas to silane gas which is in turn heated to make molten silicon. Copper you can find copper in various components of a solar panel. Silicon can be mined from quartzite mica and talc but sand is its most abundant ore source.

The metal train cars and the metal railroad tracks that are used to truck that coal by rail that runs across the country from wyoming to fuel the coal plant in pennsylvania all those things made of metal take energy to make. Anything made of metal takes lots of energy to make. Furthermore you have to think about the energy debt involved in acquiring raw materials and converting them into the parts used to make solar panels. With thin film technologies the cells are usually sandwiched between two panes of glass.

The anatomy of a solar panel. The silicon in solar panels is manufactured through a reduction process in which the silica is heated with a carbon material and the oxygen is removed leaving behind purer metallurgical grade silicon. This is one of the main drawbacks of thin film technologies in that the extra layer of glass can significantly increase the overall weight of the panel. Metal frame typically aluminum glass sheet for casing.

Recently a customer of ours raised the concern that he had heard. That energy that went into making the panels is called embodied energy after reviewing several websites with very alarmist data i started looking around some more and. Finally the authors note that finding ways to avoid waste to begin with is an important part of the equation including how to make solar panels last longer use materials more effectively and. Solar panels will never generate enough power to offset the energy that was used to manufacture them in the first place.

What are the parts of a solar panel.