Solar panels are green when in operation and industry is increasingly concerned about demonstrating their relatively small environmental footprint across their whole lifetime compared to conventional technologies. Experts in Europe are working to develop sustainability criteria to fulfil this need and potentially give European producers a competitive advantage

Bottom line:
Renewable energy technologies must walk the talk on their environmental credentials Action:
The solar industry and the European Commission are aiming to create a life cycle-based sustainability standard for electricity production to ensure that the energy transition is genuinely green and clean Win-win:
Green standards may offer European companies a way of differentiating themselves from foreign competitors and ultimately help green the industry worldwide Key quote:
Solar panels generate 20 to 50 times more energy over their lifetime than the energy required to make them and their overall environmental footprint is “only a fraction” of that of conventional generation technologies
Just because a solar panel produces clean energy does not mean it is good for the environment. French journalist and author Guillaume Pitron describes the rare earth metals needed to make solar panels and other green technologies as the “next black gold”, highlighting their potentially negative consequences for the environment and the communities that mine them. SolarPower Europe, a European trade association, plays down the “many myths out there pointing to an alleged dark side of solar”. Keen to ensure its industry has as little impact on the environment as possible, it is working with the European Commission on life cycle sustainability standards that could take into account everything from how easy a solar panel is to recycle to what materials go into it to how much energy it produces. Over their life span, solar panels generate 20 to 50 times more energy than is used to make them and their overall environmental footprint is “only a fraction” of that of conventional generation technologies, says SolarPowerEurope, a point it presses home in its latest Global Market Outlook report published in May 2019. The report also indicates “steady improvements in material and manufacturing efficiency” and the fact “critical raw materials used in PV [photovoltaic] manufacturing, such as silver and silicon, are increasingly being replaced, reduced and recycled”. Solar PV was one of 25 products selected by the EU executive for a pilot “product environmental footprint” study from 2013-18. The goal was to come up with a common way of measuring environmental performance with a view to creating a single market for green products in the EU. The next step was to apply the new methodology. In October 2017, the Commission launched a two-year project — with intensive stakeholder consultation — to study the possibility of applying EU laws on ecodesign, energy labelling, ecolabelling and green public procurement to solar PV modules, inverters and systems. The results of that investigation should be unveiled in July 2019. This is a first step towards creating a life cycle-based sustainability standard for electricity production, says Andreas Wade, who leads SolarPower Europe’s task force on sustainability. “The idea was to have this for PV and then the Commission could widen it to other sectors.” The original plan was to confirm renewable energy’s green credentials measured against fossil fuels. As a bonus, the new green standards may offer European companies a way of differentiating themselves from foreign competitors, notably in China, and ultimately help green the industry worldwide.

Battery plans

The Commission has already suggested pursuing standards for batteries. In February 2018, its Vice-President for the Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič floated the idea of a green label for electric car batteries. He also suggested that to protect its competitive edge, Europe would “have to deal” with the World Trade Organization. He told a clean energy industrial forum: “If we want to drive innovation, we have to insist on reciprocity, high environmental standards, a proper carbon footprint.” Batteries are currently subject to the same kind of ecodesign investigation as solar PV. The four policy options being studied in each case are split into two voluntary and two mandatory measures. The voluntary measures are the European “ecolabel” for environmental frontrunners and the existing standards for green public procurement. The two mandatory measures are governed by two EU directives, one for ecodesign and the other for energy labelling. Ahead of the stakeholder meeting in July, the Commission has suggested that an ecolabel for solar PV could make most sense for residential PV systems with their direct link to the end-consumer. Green public procurement criteria, meanwhile, could be more suited to large-scale utility systems. SolarPower Europe would prefer ecolabels for system components such as modules and inverters since these are the same regardless of the final system, it argues. Moreover, such labels could be based on existing international standards. The industry body also notes that policy makers need to think about how green public procurement criteria for solar PV would fit with those already in place for green electricity.

Ecodesign and energy labelling

It is clearly a complex subject with plenty of debate to come. Most interest is reserved, however, for the two mandatory measures the Commission is exploring: ecodesign and energy label. The ecodesign directive has traditionally set minimum energy efficiency standards for products such as televisions and washing machines. Its job is to force the worst performers out of the market. The energy labelling directive supports the ecodesign directive with a mandatory A-to-G (green to red) label based on a product’s energy efficiency. The purpose of the label is to encourage consumers to buy the most efficient appliance available. Together, the ecodesign and energy labelling laws are expected to deliver half of the EU’s 20% energy efficiency target for 2020. As the EU’s commitment to creating a circular economy has strengthened, application of the directives has expanded in recent years to take in a broader array of products and environmental impacts. Solar PV’s entire life cycle, from the materials used to make the panels to the clean energy produced and waste product management, are being studied in the work on a sustainability standard, confirmed Davide Polverini, the Commission official in charge of the process, at SolarPower Europe’s annual conference in Brussels in March 2019. The standard that eventually emerges will shape the industry’s future. Governments and investors around the world are increasingly looking for green investments. Product standards could be the basis for investment rating systems. The EU is in the middle of negotiating a sustainable finance package. Sustainability standards could help define a “sustainable” investment. SolarPower Europe points out that environmental footprints have already become part of the tender criteria for renewable energy support in some countries. It says such standards will “most likely” become more relevant as electricity markets develop.

Carbon footprints in France

France is the only country in Europe so far to take into account the carbon footprint of solar PV installations bidding for renewable energy support. An installation’s carbon footprint has had a weighting of at least 20% in every tender decision since the standard was introduced in 2011. At least one European supplier, Wacker Chemie, a German chemicals company that makes polysilicon for solar PV modules, has turned this to its advantage. Senior marketing manager Wolfgang Storm told the SolarPower Europe conference that his firm had invested in its own life-cycle analysis to prove to the French authorities that it has a lower carbon footprint than their default value, not just for Germany but also for Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia and Taiwan. The French environment and energy agency (ADEME) carried out its own research into an ecolabel for solar PV in 2015-17, but has put further action on hold while it waits for the Commission’s proposals. France would reportedly like to tighten its carbon footprint standard by, for example, incorporating transport along the module supply chain. Bigger changes introducing other environmental criteria (such as on use of hazardous substances or ease of recycling) will probably have to await the next reform of EU state aid rules. EU state aid law is intended to prevent unfair competition. Among other things, it sets out the legal framework for renewable energy auctions. The Commission recently extended existing state aid guidelines from 2020 to 2022 and kicked off the first public consultations on what comes next. This is one of the big emerging topics on the agenda of energy and climate stakeholders in Brussels. One of the challenges will be to allow for standards that promote quality but not protectionism. A pan-European life cycle-based sustainability standard for solar PV could help with that.

Writer: Sonja van Renssen