Renewables' not so Earth Friendly Materials:

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1 Renewables' not so Earth Friendly Materials: Wind and Solar energy is known for being one of the best renewable energy sources that the world has. They are the best because they are easily accessible, they are great for creating energy and they are abundant, so there are little worries about whether they will run out or if they will harm the world in the future. However, even though the energies themselves might not harm the world, the machines that capture the energies such as solar panels and wind turbines do worry many analysts about the negative impacts that they have on the world. The purpose of this essay is to show the negative impacts that wind turbines and solar panels have on the world by analyzing what not so earth friendly materials go into the machines. Wind Energy: How clean is it? By William Girgash Over the last decade, renewable energy's importance within the daily lives of Americans has slowly increased, as renewable energy now produces 13% of all of America's electricity where wind power produces 4.7% of the electricity (EIA: Questions, 1). Even though wind power only creates 4.7% of electricity for the United States, many scientists say that wind turbines could steadily increase in the future as they are extremely reliable and have the potential to work year around. Because of the potential of working year around, wind turbines have one of the best EROIs of renewable sources as their ratio is between 18:1 and 20:1 (Energy Policy pg 143). From this information, one is able to see that wind energy is one of the theories to reduce greenhouse gasses within the United States and the world. However, even though wind energy seems to be the perfect answer, it really has some major flaws that damage the environment that people need to consider first before in creasing wind turbines within the U.S.

2 A major flaw that wind turbines have is that the process of producing energy is slow. It takes around 2-4 years for one wind turbine to make the same amount of energy that it takes to make the wind turbine itself (AWEA, 2). To some people, 2-4 years seems relatively quick, but in reality, the amount of time could increase because wind turbines are only 30% efficient and only makes 1.53 MW/year (Wikipedia, Wind Power in the U.S.). With this flaw, many scientists and researchers thought the best way to increase the efficiency of the wind turbines would be through the use of neodymium magnets. The neodymium magnets are the most important aspect of today's wind turbines because they increase the efficiency of the wind turbines by having less friction in the gearboxes. However, there are even more serious flaws with the use of neodymium that should make people think twice about increasing the amount of wind turbines that have neodymium in the U.S.. Two major flaws that neodymium has are that it is rarer than gold and it is produced mostly in China (around 97%), increasing the amount greenhouse gasses in the U.S. (Jones, 3). This means that the amount of time it takes for the wind turbines to make the same amount of energy that it takes to make the turbines themselves, could increase even more time. Although these are serious problems with considering that the process of neodymium increases greenhouse gasses, the biggest flaw that neodymium has, is that it is extremely dangerous to mine, especially in China where it has less regulations for mining. There have been numerous accounts of the neodymium killing surrounding plantations and animals because of the toxic lakes that seep into the soil infecting the plants that (IER: Big Wind s Dirty little secret 6-7). However, the environment is not only affected, as hundreds of people from surrounding villages are also affected. These toxic chemicals are the reason why babies are born with softer bones, young adults losing their teeth, and growing white hair, along with a large increase of skin and respiratory diseases and cancer within the area (IER: Big Wind s Dirty little secret 6-7).

3 With less regulations and proper medical care, people have been dying because of the effects of neodymium mines that are intended for American wind turbines. This situation of the wind turbines is extremely tough because wind turbines do actually help the environment tremendously because wind turbines are more efficient than other renewable sources. However, there has to be some consideration of wind turbines separating from neodymium as it is causing more harm to the environment and to many innocent lives within the world rather than helping the world. American companies should look globally for answers such as a german group called ENERCON who are producing a gearless design that would be as efficient as the neodymium magnets, but wouldn't create an immediate and dangerous effect that neodymium has on the environment (Yes2renewables.com 4). Renewables are Far from Perfect By Anton C. L. Manak A huge problem with Wind turbines and certain solar panels is that they require rare earth elements. Rare earth elements are a misnomer since Rare earth elements and metals aren't rare, in the geologic sense; they're just diffuse and hard to extract and make it worth the money. (Ferris) The biggest problem with rare earth is that mining one ton of rare earth minerals produces about one ton of radioactive waste, (Big Wind's Dirty Little Secret) and considering that a 2 megawatt (MW) wind turbine contains about 800 pounds of neodymium and 130 pounds of dysprosium (neodymium and dysprosium being rare earths) for each wind turbine made 930 pounds (420 kg) of radioactive waste comes with it. And with that fact if we consider that China is one of the countries with the least regulation and have a really poor record of environmental stewardship, and at its apex in 2011, China controlled 97 percent of the world s rare earth refining, which means that this radioactive waste is not being taken very well care of,

4 the environmental footprint of renewable energies is pretty big before they are even used. In recent years though the problem slightly improved, due to some problems with their trade in 2011, China temporarily brought the average price of rare earth elements up by 750 percent, which was a wake up call for most countries, and rare earth refineries started to open in other countries (especially Australia) and now China holds 90 percent of the world s production of rare earths. (Jones) Solar panels footprint is a little more complicated than wind due to the fact they come in lots of varieties: 55% of the solar panels sold are Polycrystalline silicon, 36% are Monocrystalline silicon, and 9% are Thin-film solar panels (Lipman). The Thin-film solar panels group is composed of 32% Amorphous silicon (a-si), 43% Cadmium telluride (CdTe) and 25% Copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) (Maehlum). Only CdTe and CIGS solar panels use Rare earths which is to say 6% of the solar panels sold. The reason why solar is a problem is because it s main ingredient (except for CdTe and CIGS) is pure silicon and the production of pure silicon is energy demanding and produces lots of CO 2. The production of 1 kg of silicium (pure silicon) from quartz requires 11 kwh (Robertson) and produce 1.6 kg of CO 2. In addition if the energy is provided by coal (and since it involves melting the quartz, it most likely is provided entirely by coal), and 1 kwh is created for every kg of coal burned (Brünglinghaus), it means that kg of coal which would produce around 5 kg of CO 2, which means that for every kg of silicon produced, 6.6 kg of CO 2 are produced with it.

5 WORKS CITED "Big Wind's Dirty Little Secret: Toxic Lakes and Radioactive Waste - IER." Institute for Energy Research. Travis Fisher, Alex Fitzsimmons, 23 Oct Web. 16 Oct Brünglinghaus, Marion. "Coal Equivalent." European Nuclear Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct Courtice, Ben. "Rare Earth Magnets: Not All New Turbines Are Using Them." Rare Earth Magnets: Not All New Turbines Are Using Them. Yes2renewables, 05 Mar Web. 01 Oct Ferris, David. "TECHNOLOGY: 5 Years after Crisis, U.S. Remains Dependent on China's Rare Earth Elements." E&E Publishing, LLC. N.p., 12 Jan Web. 16 Oct Jones, Nicola. "A Scarcity of Rare Metals Is Hindering Green Technologies." Environment 360. Yale, 18 Nov Web. 01 Oct Lipman, Sam. "What Are the Different Types of Solar Modules?" Solar Power World. N.p., 30 July Web. 16 Oct Maehlum, Mathias Aarre. "Best Thin Film Solar Panels Amorphous, Cadmium Telluride or CIGS? - Energy Informative." Energy Informative. N.p., 6 Apr Web. 16 Oct Robertson, John. "How Many KWh Electricity Are Necessary for Producing 1 Kg of Pure Silicium, from Sand?" Quora. N.p., 6 Mar Web. 16 Oct "State Fact Sheets." State Fact Sheets. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Oct "U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - Independent Statistics and Analysis." What Is U.S. Electricity Generation by Energy Source? N.p., 1 Apr Web. 16 Oct Wilburn, David R. "Wind Energy in the US and Materials Required for the Land- Based Wind Turbine Industry From 2010 Through 2030." Wind Energy in the United States and

6 Materials Required for the Land-Based Wind Turbine Industry From 2010 Through 2030 (n.d.): n. pag. Web. 1 Oct