How to treat the news that "the production of photovoltaic modules consumes a lot of energy"
Photovoltaic cells do consume a certain amount of energy in their production process, especially industrial silicon purification, high-purity polysilicon production, single crystal silicon rods and polycrystalline silicon ingot production, the energy consumption is high, but the photovoltaic battery has a service life of 20 years. Energy can be continuously generated during the period.It is estimated that under the average sunshine conditions in China, the energy return of photovoltaic power generation system exceeds 15 times of its energy consumption during the whole life. The energy recovery period of a 1 kW rooftop PV grid-connected system installed at the best tilt angle in Beijing is 1.5-2 years, which is much lower than the lifetime of the PV system. That is to say, the electricity emitted by the PV system in the first 1.5-2 years is used to offset the energy consumed in the process of production. The energy emitted after 1.5-2 years is pure output, so the photovoltaic cell should be evaluated from the perspective of the whole life cycle energy consumption.
