Green and clean energy is not so clean. It will generate a carbon footprint and may cause further environmental degradation after decommissioning.
INTRODUCTION
A consumerist, energy-intensive society is driven by lust for energy. The sources of energy have been sustainable in civilised societies of Sanatan but have undergone transition, with the realisation that “green energy saves us all”. In the 21st century, there is a call for the elimination of fossil fuel energy and adopting green renewable energy.
OPTIONS FOR GREEN ENERGY
Energy generated from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, or water is termed as green energy. The key to these energy resources is that they don’t harm the environment through factors such as releasing greenhouse gases and pollutants into the atmosphere.
The most common and prominent source is solar energy. Photovoltaic cells and the solar panel sector are witnessing exponential growth as more people opt for solar energy. One hour of solar energy radiated at earth equals the energy consumed on earth in one year.
Others are solar driven tidal energy, wind energy, wave energy…
When it comes to energy generation from renewable sources, storing that energy is a crucial matter. When it comes to renewable energy, power cannot be generated at the will of humans, unlike coal/thermal energy. Solar energy is only available when sunlight is available, wind energy is available when wind is blowing. Therefore, it is critical to store the energy. Here, batteries come into the equation and these batteries require lithium.
Lithium-ion batteries are being mass-produced to store every ounce of energy produced from renewable sources. Demand for lithium is increasing exponentially, and the prices have jumped too.
More than 60% of the total lithium amount (about 26.9 Mt) exists in brine and seawater, especially those located in Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, China, and the United States. The greatest deposits of lithium are found in what is called the Lithium Triangle. It is in the intersection of Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. Looking at the lithium deposits around the world, we can assume it is sufficient to match the energy demand of the world but is it enough to match the greed of the world?
TRUTH OF PRESENT GREEN ENERGY
Considering the velocity with which solar energy is thriving, we can safely assume that the installation of photovoltaic cells is materializing at a rapid pace. But has the world considered the environmental cost analysis of pre, during, and post-production and installation of solar panels or is it just blindly greenwashing?
It takes 1 ton of coal to manufacture every residential PV array. Some types of PV cell technologies use heavy metals, and these types of cells and PV panels may require special handling when they reach the end of their useful life. Some solar thermal systems use potentially hazardous fluids to transfer heat, and leaks of these materials could be harmful to the environment.
After installation, solar systems degrade the land. Land use by solar fields can be massive, and, sharing such land for agricultural use is not an option.
Solar panels, after being decommissioned, create a large amount of toxic e-waste. Standard solar modules’ silicon wafers are encapsulated, commonly by ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA). This layer protects the silicon wafer. If modules are not disposed of properly and exposed to specific test conditions, is it possible that some leaching may occur?
For wind turbines, land degradation, bird impact, and noise pollution are some of the issues. For tidal turbines, biofouling is a major complication, on top of being expensive, rusting, and a potential threat to aquatic ecosystems. Production and installation of such turbines require heavy diesel machinery, manufacturing energy running on fossil fuels, and a significant carbon footprint.
In reality, green and clean energy is not so clean after all. In one form or the other, it will generate a carbon footprint and may cause further environmental degradation after decommissioning.
As the world transitions into “green energy”, storage plays a pivotal role. Lithium has the answer. Lithium is not only used for Li-ion batteries but its isotopes can provide information on the natural drawdown process of atmospheric CO2, can track weathering changes across major climate-change events in pharmaceuticals and the manufacture of grease, ceramics, and glass. Global powers are now locking horns to increase influence in global lithium deposits for lithium-based industries, seeking economic benefits and to dominate the EV market.
The abundance of energy-storing raw materials is not enough evidence for a safe, green, and clean energy future. There are multi-dimensional costs of lithium-based products manufacturing. Like any mining process, lithium mining is invasive, it scars the landscape, destroys the water table, and pollutes the earth and the local wells. Lithium extraction uses a lot of water—approximately 500,000 gallons per tonne of lithium. The extraction of 1 ton of lithium causes an emission of 15 tons of CO2. In Chile’s Salar de Atacama, mining activities consumed 65% of the region’s water. In Argentina’s Salar de Hombre Muerto, locals claim that lithium operations have contaminated streams used by humans and livestock, and for crop irrigation. Dead fish washed up in the waters of the Liqi River, where a toxic chemical leak from the Ganzizhou Rongda Lithium mine had wreaked havoc with the local ecosystem. The idea of green energy is not so green after all.
ARE THE REAL SOLUTIONS BEING IGNORED?
While electric cars are rapidly taking over the automobile industry, nobody has openly addressed the environmental impacts of the production of the so-called “clean energy” and the extraction and production of lithium-ion batteries.
With the pace and popularity of electric cars, people have not been given a fair chance to hydrogen-powered cars except for Toyota.
Toyota has been working on a hydrogen combustion engine with armoured plating for hydrogen cells, making hydrogen cars as safe as any ICE car. An India-based start-up of IIT Kharagpur engineers in association with IISc Bangalore has demonstrated hydrogen fuel cell technology using water as electrolyte and aluminium electrodes and graphene containers to store the produced hydrogen safely. And the by-product of such cars is H2O. But the international agencies are deliberately delaying the safety approvals for this as the lithium sector and the “green energy” sector are travelling at a supersonic speed.
Another ignored solution is sodium-ion batteries. While the price of lithium hydroxide (per metric ton) jumped from $6,800 to $78,000 from 2019 to 2022, the price of sodium hydroxide remains less than $800. Sodium is found in abundance and can be separated from water and salt crystals. Sodium-ion batteries have larger charge cycles with higher temperature resistance, able to perform efficiently in hot and cold climates, unlike Li-ion batteries. But Li-ion batteries are still on the rise.
One last solution for energy-intensive creatures like us is a minimalistic lifestyle. An extravagant lifestyle has implanted greed in our DNA which promotes a capitalistic consumerist approach based on “western model of development” to living.
The sooner we follow a nature centric development approach, the better it will be. Technology will be significant but it has to be planned with nature.