Sceptics and opponents of renewables will say that Solar energy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Whilst solar panels and solar electricity still have a carbon footprint, the carbon footprint of solar is significantly less than that of fossil fuels. For example: solar only has 9-180 grams of CO2 emissions per KwH produced, compared to the average of 233 grams of CO2 that fossil fuels create for that same KwH.

The emissions involved with Solar panels almost all come from the manufacturing process: creating silicon for the solar cells uses chemicals such as sodium hydroxide and hydrofluoric acid, as well as a lot of water and electricity. The location of the factory they are produced in can also have a big impact, with many factories in China use coal powered energy for example.

The good news is solar panels don’t create any emissions once they are installed, the electricity they generate is emission free. So, the question becomes do solar panels offset CO2 created in their manufacture well enough to be green? The answer is YES. Evergen have a 25-year guarantee on our solar panels, and the “carbon debt” involved in panel manufacture is generally 1-3 years at most, meaning the carbon you will save will outweigh the carbon in manufacture in a short space of time. Giving you at least 22 years of clean, emission free electricity in your solar panel system.