It is difficult to know how (or why) to respond to Jim Bates’ most recent letter to the Recorder, “Missed from answer” Feb. 26).
Mr. Bates’ original letter “I offer a challenge” (Feb. 1) invited anyone to prove him wrong that more CO2 is emitted “from the manufacturing, transportation and installation of solar panels and wind turbines than is saved by their use.”
I chose to responded only to the solar panel part of the challenge, “Taking the challenge” (Feb. 15), by offering two sources: 1) the journal Environmental Science & Technology article “Emissions from Photovoltaic Life Cycles” (2008), and 2) A National Renewable Energy Laboratory Report (NREL/FS-520-24619). Together I thought these two sources soundly refuted Mr. Bates’ “opinion.”
Was I wrong? Mr. Bates replied: “… your letter missed the most important points of my challenge. You failed to address the facts of how much CO2 is generated during the manufacturing, transportation and installation of solar panels. … Before these devices become operational they have a negative CO2 rating.
“It will take many years or decades for the devices to ‘work off’ this deficit. When their useful life is over; these devices have to be destroyed and/or recycled, thus creating more CO2 emissions.”
But wait, what did my sources say?
Emissions from Photovoltaic Life Cycles: “Analysis of material and energy flows in all life stages of photovoltaics shows that 90 percent of air emissions associated with electricity generation could be prevented if electricity from photovoltaics displaces electricity from the grid.” And the NREL report: “During its projected 28 years of clean energy production, a rooftop (PV) system … meeting half of a household’s electricity use would avoid conventional electrical plant emission of more than … 100 tons of carbon dioxide.”
Since Mr. Bates offers absolutely no proof, doesn’t this suffice?
WILLIAM GRAN
Heath