Solar energy collecting devices have been challenged from
several points of view. The Energy
Return on Energy Invested has been noted in extensive research as being
low. The dependence on fossil fuel has
been noted. Solar enthusiasts act as if
the industry stands apart from the fossil fuel supply system. It is not separate from the present undulating
supply plateau nor the scraping of the bottom of the fossil fuel barrel. We will never truly run out of fossil fuels,
but the monetary cost and the environmental assaults defined by geology, geography
as well as politics will certainly constrain our energy future.
My position has been that the underwriting by the global
industrial infrastructure is a necessary consideration. All the things in our
world have an industrial history. Behind
the computer, the T-shirt, the vacuum cleaner is an industrial infrastructure
fired by energy (fossil fuels mainly).
Each component of our car or refrigerator has an industrial
history. Mainly unseen and out of mind,
this global industrial infrastructure touches every aspect of our lives. It pervades our daily living from the
articles it produces, to its effect on the economy and employment, as well as
its effects on the environment.
Solar energy collecting devices also have an industrial
history. It is important to understand
the industrial infrastructure and the environmental results for the components
of the solar energy collecting devices so we don’t designate them with false
labels such as green, renewable or sustainable.
This is an essay challenging ‘business as usual’. If we teach people that these solar devices
are the future of energy without teaching the whole system, we mislead,
misinform and create false hopes and beliefs.
I have provided both charts and videos
for each of the
components considered.
Please note each piece of machinery you see
in each of
the videos has its own
industrial interconnection and
history.
To look at all the
video takes approximately 40 minutes.
___________________________________________
THE SOLAR CELL AND MODULE FACTORY
When you look at the solar video, a beautiful,
sophisticated, highly technical dance emerges.
Suntech Power: How Suntech Photovoltaic Cells
and Modules are Made (English Version)
5.41 minutes
__________________________________________________
GLASS
An essay with diagrams and a wonderful video has already
been posted. I refer the reader to that blog entry. http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2015/03/making-glass_8.html
Solar energy collecting devices use low iron plate glass for
a covering. All modern plate glass has a
global face. Glass is a wonderful
product. Float glass for windows
improves homes and other buildings enormously.
Think about what your home would be without glass.
Solar energy collecting devices whether they are for heating
hot air, hot water or making electricity are part of a huge global system. The blog entry noted above shows the process
in making glass from the mining to the heating the sand to 2800° F to rolling
it out, cutting and transporting. It also shows a huge factory and the global
economies of scale required to make it affordable.
Float
Glass Manufacturing Process .flv 4 minutes clear,best
4.08
_________________________________________________________
The frame for the solar energy collecting devices is made from aluminum.
The aluminum can come from raw ore or it can be recycled.
The frame is then extruded into the shape needed.
ALUMINUM FROM BAUXITE OR RECYCLED AND
THEN EXTRUDED
FROM BAUXITE
How It's Made Aluminum
4.53 Minutes
RECYCLED
Aluminum is lauded for its recyclability. Recycled
aluminum saves some 95% of the energy over mined bauxite. In the background it still has a huge
industrial infrastructure that collects, transports, crushes, compacts,
transports, heats, makes ingots and then refabricates.
Focus on the machinery in this short video:
The story of Aluminium Recycling
2.05 Minutes
Aluminum Extrusion
When I was 14 years old, I worked in an aluminum extrusion
plant in south Florida. We would roll
the carts that were on a rail that were filled with extrusions into a large
heating room. The heating room went to
375° F (if I remember correctly- almost 50 years ago) and would age the
aluminum. We would then go in and roll
the cart out, wrap the extrusions and load them in trucks. Because it was summer, we all were wet with
perspiration when we went into the room to get the cart. Our T-shirts would dry immediately. When we went home after work, our T-shirts
were caked with our own salt.
Aluminum Extrusion
3.01 minutes
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INVERTER
An inverter is a piece of equipment that changes the incoming Direct Current electricity from the panels to the Alternating Current used in our homes. Our vacuum cleaners, TVs, water pumps, etc. use AC supplied by the power company.
As an aside, when I first used solar and wind energy collecting devices in the early 1980s, I wired my house with heavy gauge wire and used DC with lights, pump, refrigerator and TV. I had a small inverter to run my vacuum cleaner and computer.
When the fan went out on our inverter (which it has done twice) we had to pull the heavy inverter off the wall and replace the small fan. The local solar people wanted to charge $400 to change it.
See my essay: http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-small-fan.html
Conergy Inverter manufacture process
5.11 minutes
_______________________________________________
BATTERY
Deep Cycle Battery Manufacturing - by U.S. Battery
5.54 minutes
________________________________________________
COPPER
Copper Mining and Refining (Redox)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2hjv6FS67g
4.43 minutes
7.32 minutes
The
Mining Process at Copper Mountain Mine
https://youtu.be/eOrISAmMtZM
7.32 minutes
How Electric Motors are made
4.50 minutes
________________________________________
We have looked at charts and videos of making solar energy
collecting devices, at the glass process and at the various aluminum processes. We viewed the manufacturing of an inverter
that changes the DC energy to AC and the batteries for storing the electricity.
And lastly, we viewed two videos on copper; one on production and the other on
one of the many tools for which we use electricity.
Solar energy collecting devices have an industrial
history. It arises part and parcel out
of the global industrial infrastructure, the complexes that brings the many
products of our age to our use.
_________________________________________________________
Here are the pages from Stone’s Fall by Iain Pears [Spiegel & Grau ;
Reprint edition (June 1, 2010)]. I looked for an email or address
for him but was unable to find one. I
wanted to thank him. Not only were these
several pages eye openers, but the book was a joy to read and enjoyable.
This for me was a
powerful statement about nature –
the environment –
global industrial complexes.
A ‘YES’.
“Many hundreds of men, machines ranging
from
the huge cranes to the smallest
screwdrivers,
all working together, all apparently
knowing what
they were to do and when they were to do
it.”
A screwdriver, yes, a
screwdriver of course it has an industrial history.
These paragraphs hit
me with a resounding
‘YES’ and ‘OF
COURSE”. It was wonderful.
This paragraph seem
to sum in addition the dilemma
we face as the nature
of some of the “beasts”.
