One of the solutions in addressing climate change is to shift to renewable energy like solar power. For transport, one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the solution is to use Electric Vehicles (EV).
The transition to more environment friendly alternatives however, is not without challenges. There are problems with solutions. Solar power for instance, has land use problems. This technology also uses hazardous materials which makes handling and disposal difficult.
Solar farms (a large collection of photovoltaic solar panels) require huge tracts of land. One megawatt (MW) of electricity needs around one hectare of land. Thus, a 50 MW solar farm would need 50 hectares. In the Philippines today, the conversion of agricultural lands to other uses is restricted due to food security issues. I presume other countries have this problem as well.
Then there’s the issue of hazardous materials in the photovoltaic (PV) panels. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said that there are hazardous chemicals used to make PV cells and panels that must be carefully handled to avoid release to the environment. They also mentioned that some types of PV cell technologies use heavy metals and that these types of cells and PV panels may require special handling when they reach the end of their useful life.
And for the batteries that go with solar farms and EV’s, there’s a problem in mining lithium in Argentina, the country that has 60% of known reserves. According to an article published in Yale Environment 360 (full text can be read at https://e360.yale.edu/features/lithium-mining-water-andes-argentina), the cheapest method of extracting lithium carbonate will have various environmental impacts to the area where it will be mined.
For every ton of lithium carbonate extracted from underground, it dissipates into the air about half a million gallons of water that is vital to the arid High Andes in Argentina. The extraction lowers water tables, and because freshwater often sits on top of salty water, this has the potential to dry up the lakes, wetlands, springs, and rivers that flourish where the underground water reaches the surface. Hydrologists and conservationists say Argentina’s lithium rush is set to turn the region’s delicate ecosystems to desert.
Fortunately, there are solutions to the problems cause by climate change solutions. For land use, some countries have installed floating solar panels. They put up solar farms in lakes or other bodies of water. Another solution is elevating solar panels so that the land beneath can still be used for agriculture. As for the hazardous content of solar panels, there are ways to recover and recycle them.
For the lithium problem, there are alternatives. Zinc and nickel are both potential substitutes for lithium in rechargeable batteries. There are also ways of obtaining lithium that are less destructive than evaporating the metal from precious saline ecosystems.
The bottom line is that in finding solutions, we should avoid creating more problems.