#MoveTheDate | Day-by-Day

The Anthropocene epoch, or the period when human activity began to have significant long-term impacts on the Earth’s climate and ecosystems, is closely linked to the unleashing of fossil energy sources to fuel human economic development. Whilst the first nuclear bomb tests in the 1940s marked the beginning of the Anthropocene, the most impactful and increasingly visible indicator is the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is inducing a long-term change in the Earth’s climate.

Sustaining the exploitation of fossil resources from the Earth’s reservoirs and emission of waste streams to the natural sinks of the ecosystem at current rate would require more than 1 ? planets, so the long-term survival of humanity can only be ensured by decoupling economic, social and cultural development from resource exploitation and waste emissions. 

The harvesting and use of energy will play a decisive role in enabling that transformation since greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels make up the majority of the Earth’s ecological footprint today. Freely and abundantly available solar energy, converted into electricity, renewable hydrogen and multiple other power-to-X (PtX) energy and feedstock vectors forms the foundation for this fundamental metamorphosis of the economic system to a photon-based economy.

First Solar’s vision to lead the world’s sustainable energy future is focused on enabling that transition. In recent years, we have taken tangible steps towards that vision. 

In just over 20 years, we have produced and sold more than 25,000 MW of photovoltaic modules. Every day, First Solar’s technology is saving 48,000 tons of CO2 emissions, 124,000 m3 of water and almost 3 million USD of public health costs related to avoided emissions of criteria pollutants such as particulate matter, nitrogen and sulfur oxides and heavy metals. 

Having developed the most eco-efficient photovoltaic technology on the market and embedded it in a circular business model, First Solar is taking a further step to decouple the company’s growth from resource use and carbon emissions by committing to power our global operations with renewable sources within 8 years, further reducing the life cycle carbon footprint of our PV modules by 40%. Combining our circular business model with the decoupling of our electricity supply chain from fossil fuels, we take the solar breeder concept to the next level, enabling true decoupling for our customers, addressing the unmet need for a highly recyclable, resource efficient and ultra-low carbon photovoltaic technology.

The original Solar Breeder concept- a factory manufacturing solar photovoltaic modules, entirely powered by solar electricity generated by the modules it is producing- was first introduced in January 1974 by Dr. Joseph Lindmayer in a hearing on fiscal policy and the energy crisis before the Subcommittee on Energy of the Committee of Finance of the United States Senate[1]. Back then, PV panels costs ranged from 200 to 600 USD per Watt. Dr. Lindmayer stated:

“If we would be putting enough solar panels on the roof, an increasing amount of the solar panel manufacturing could become solar-energy operated. Based on our new technology, which is simple and energy conserving, we could solarize the entire manufacturing process. The next result of increased solarization of the process would be an energy-independent, energy manufacturing plant. At this point, we will have created, in lieu of a better word, a solar breeder. The output of such a solar breeder may be expressed in terms of x number of kilowatts per year and every solar panel manufactured will continue to produce energy over the life of that panel, which is at least 20 years. This proposition will remind some people today of the perpetual motion machine, but we are not violating any of the physical laws of nature; the solar breeder indeed would produce energy for homes, factories, and so forth, without requiring any artificial energy input except, of course, the sun.”[2]

46 years later, the solar breeder concept is now more achievable than ever thanks to the rapidly evolving learning curve for PV technology. The idea remained popular in the 1970’s and 1980’s mainly due to the energy crisis and was widely discussed in the scientific community[3]. Conversion efficiencies have since increased, manufacturing processes became more energy efficient and economies of scale drove cost reductions, which today are 1000 to 3000x lower than they were 50 years ago.

With energy payback times well below 1 year and life cycle carbon footprints well below 15 g CO2eq/kWh, today’s most advanced PV technologies, offer the most cost-efficient and sustainable solution to achieve decarbonization across all industry sectors[4] – including commodity PV manufacturing, which today is no longer described in terms of kilowatts per year, but rather gigawatts and terawatts for the coming decade.

At First Solar, we are making the most of every day and remain committed to #MoveTheDate | Day-by-Day with the power of the sun. 

[1] Lindmayer, Joseph. Fiscal policy and the energy crisis - Hearings before the Subcommittee on Energy of the Committee of Finance United States Senate - Statement of Dr. Joseph Lindmayer, President, Solarex Corp., § Senate Subcommittee on Finance (1974). https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fiscal4.pdf.

[2] Ibid. P. 1611

[3] Slesser, Malcolm, und Ian Hounam. ?Solar Energy Breeders“. Nature 262, Nr. 5566 (Juli 1976): 244–45. https://doi.org/10.1038/262244b0.

[4] Sinha, Parikhit, und Andreas Wade. ?Assessing the life cycle cost of decoupling electricity generation from greenhouse gas emissions“. IEEE PVSC 47 (June-August 2020). Virtual. https://www.ieee-pvsc.org/PVSC47/index.php