I recently had a solar panel door-to-door salesman stop by my house. His pitch was interesting. Instead of just saying, “Would you like to put solar panels on your roof?” he began by asking, “How large is your electricity bill every month?” I was at first confused. What was this guy selling? Who is this person and why are they asking me so many questions about my utility company? It finally hit me that it must be solar panels.
Why the subterfuge? Perhaps because there are a lot of shady solar panel salesmen out there. While some people buy solar panels outright, many will lease them, and some of the leases come with dubious terms. Depending on the terms and conditions of the lease, a homeowner might wind up saving very little money. There have been entire solar companies that went bankrupt after selling subpar equipment, leaving homeowners stranded. Additionally, some solar panels may not deliver the savings that were advertised.
After confirming that this man was selling solar panels, I told him that I would love to install solar, but that my south-facing roof is shaded most of the year by several very large trees. He was ready. “What if I told you that I would have the trees cut down using money from my own commission so you don’t have to pay for it?” he responded without missing a beat.
…
There aren’t many times I’d say the word “flabbergasted” was the best way to describe my feelings, but this was one of them.
“Uhhhhhh but I like the trees,” I responded.
To his credit, he didn’t try and push me any further. Instead, he wished me a pleasant day and continued to the next house.
But really? You should not cut down trees to install solar panels! People who sell solar panels for a living should not be incentivizing homeowners to cut down trees! Things like this make me understand how people can have doubts about the entire environmental movement. Are there people out there who would cut down a bunch of trees to put solar panels on their roofs and do so thinking they are saving the environment? My gut tells me yes. I’m sure there are at least a few well-meaning individuals who hear “solar power” and think, “Great! I’ll help the environment. Those trees out back are ugly anyway.”
This gets to the fundamental truth that is often ignored when trying to “save the environment”. The Earth is a closed system. Except for the occasional space probe, everything that starts on Earth finishes on Earth. To assess whether something is good for the environment, the total impact of its adoption needs to be considered. I’ve written about this before vis-a-vis electric cars. An electric vehicle may not emit pollution directly, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t cause emissions. Electric cars just move emissions from the tailpipe of the car to the smokestack of a nearby power plant. If that power plant is powered by coal, then buying an electric car could be doing more harm than good.
The same holds for solar panels. Creating solar panels initially damages the environment. Minerals have to be mined from the earth and then refined into other materials that go into solar panels. Ironically, this refining process is often done in China, using power that is provided by burning coal. Solar panels also don’t last forever, and need to be disposed of carefully less then pollute the environment. Every solar panel starts its lifecycle in the red, as something that hurts the environment. Then, as the solar panel generates electricity, it slowly becomes a better alternative than other options like coal or natural gas. A well-placed solar panel finishes in the black, having generated far more electricity given its carbon footprint than a power plant using fossil fuels.
The point is that solar panels are not always a good thing. Want to build a solar farm in the Arizona desert? Great! Remove some shrubs and a few cacti and take advantage of 300+ days of sun a year. The gains will be large, and the carbon footprint reduced if solar replaces one of Arizona’s coal plants. Las Vegas should be powered solely by the Hoover Dam and solar farms. On the other hand, solar panels are not such a slam dunk in Connecticut. There is a lot of grey here. Sometimes I don’t see the sun for an entire week. Additionally, the grid has moved away from coal and almost all electricity is provided by natural gas or nuclear power, so the savings from moving to solar are smaller.
If you’re then going to chop down a bunch of trees, then you might be doing more harm than good. Trees provide two uses in this case. First, they are made up of carbon, so chopping them down is going to increase the carbon elsewhere. Secondly, those giant trees provide shade for my house. This lowers the amount of electricity needed every summer to run the air conditioner. Removing the trees means that the solar panels generate more electricity, but also that I have to use more electricity to keep my house cool. It would almost certainly be a net increase in carbon emissions to chop down the trees and put up a handful of panels.
Solar power is good. Done well, it will help us move away from fossil fuels and toward a sustainable future. Just don’t cut down any trees to install solar panels on your roof.
On a positive note, I’m glad people are waking up to the monopoly that power companies have on energy.
I would imagine it’s a very inefficient market due to asymmetric information, barriers to entry, and government subsidies.