A lot of the environmental costs of solar depend on how the panels and batteries are produced, transported and disposed of… and most importantly how the energy is stored. As renewable energy grows, storage will become a greater problem. In general, we would be better off producing energy like the sun (fusion) than trying to capture the sun’s energy. http://news.stanford.edu/…/store-electric-grid-030513.html
The fossil fuel required to build grid-scale batteries…
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Fusion does not produce any toxic waste, either — http://news.yahoo.com/solar-industry-grapples-hazardous…
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Homeowners on the hunt…news.yahoo.com|By JASON DEAREN -
One of my main concerns with solar is the cost to the environment if they are not put on already existing impervious surfaces. Solar panel farms have many negative impacts on plants and wildlife, not to mention, robbing the Earth’s surface of the energy being harvested by the panels.
Other than fusion, the only other method to create clean energy has to do with solar and turning water into electricity — The Economics of Turning Water into Electricity.