Washington, DC: A new alliance dedicated to deploying ultra-low-carbon solar energy announced its formation October 8. Leading renewable energy companies from a diverse cross-section of the solar industry joined together to launch the Ultra Low-Carbon Solar Alliance. The Alliance will work to build greater market awareness on solar supply chain decarbonization and is producing solar panels with low embodied carbon to help governments and companies meet ambitious sustainability goals.
The Alliance comments that the COVID-19 pandemic and the looming climate crisis have forced companies to rethink how they build their products and procure materials. Much of the focus on supply chain decarbonization has been on energy-intensive industries such as cement, steel, and glass. But the Alliance is embracing an opportunity to decarbonize the solar energy supply chain.
“Every solar project is dramatically better than a fossil fuel plant, but not all solar panels are created equal,” said Alliance Executive Director Michael Parr. “Solar projects can reduce their embodied carbon by 50% by using ultra low-carbon solar panels available in the market today. France, South Korea and other countries are prioritizing ultra low-carbon solar panels in projects. Companies and policymakers in the U.S. can be doing the same.”
Photovoltaic installations produce no emissions in their operation, but there are emissions associated with how they are produced and transported – what is called “embodied carbon.” A study by Argonne National Laboratory found significant differences in the embodied carbon of solar panels, depending on how and where they are made. For example, solar panels produced with polysilicon from China have twice the embodied carbon as panels made with materials from the U.S. or EU. Thin film solar modules show similar performance. Such ultra low-carbon solar panels are in the market today from multiple producers at competitive prices.
U.S. companies are beginning to specify ultra low-carbon panels in their RFPs and demonstrate that they can significantly reduce the embodied carbon in these new energy systems without any impact on price competition.