US-made solar panels would significantly reduce emissions and energy consumption, according to a new study from Cornell University.
If the US manufactures the solar panels it uses instead of importing them, then that would speed up decarbonization, according to research published in Nature Communications by Cornell Engineering.
Specifically, fully returning solar panel manufacturing to the US by 2035 would cut emissions by 30% and reduce energy consumption by 13%, compared to 2020, when the US relied almost entirely on imports.
The researchers further assert that if the “reshored manufacturing target is achieved by 2050, the climate change and energy impacts would be further reduced by 33% and 17%, compared to the 2020 level.”
Fengqi You, a co-author of the study, explained that “the US will see a larger share of renewable power accounting for primary energy consumption and an overall lower primary energy consumption over the years for solar panel manufacturing.”
Making solar panels in the US will reduce supply chain disruption and the threat of geopolitical instability. It would also reduce the cost and emissions of shipping freight from abroad. And because solar projects will come online in a more timely manner due to less obstacles, then they’ll be connected to the grid faster.
The researchers maintain:
By 2035, solar power is projected to support 40% of US electricity demand, a tenfold increase over the solar output in 2021. By 2050, solar could be nearly half of the electricity supply.
Top comment by Chris Drongers
The Nature paper is long and very hard to get your head around.
But basically it is saying that the USA can manufacture PV modules using a greater fraction of renewable energy than the Chinese.
The difference in production of electronic grade silicon, the most energy intensive steps, is so great that the USA now can produce a monocrystaline PV module in which silicon production has used 60% of the carbon that producing a Chinese module does.
If the USA continues to grow renewable energy at expected rates the difference in CO2 emissions/pv watt manufactured between USA and China continues to grow.
Given that China has 1TW of renewable power installed already and wants to grow that rapidly, my take is that the expectation is that the Chinese energy demand is so enormous (making widgets for the rest of the world which then don't produce CO2 making their own widgets) that China can never catch up to the (less demanding) USA renewable energy fraction even though the USA is less aggressive in its rate of renewable power installation than China.
The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act provides $369 billion to build a clean energy economy, and that includes the production of 950 million solar panels.
The US is the second-largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. According to the World Resources Institute, the top three emitters — “China, the United States, and India — contribute 42.6% total emissions, while the bottom 100 countries only account for only 2.9%.”
Read more: The US’s first-ever complete solar supply chain is coming
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