Solar Energy: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Written by Dr. Ganapathy Shanmugam on July 2, 2026. Posted in Current News

I thank Angela Wheeler, Executive Director of the CO2 Coalition, for inviting me to present this contribution, and Ethan Otte for helping

The Good

• The Solar Supremacy of Energy: The Sun is the primary energy source for our planet’s energy budget and contributes to processes throughout Earth (Fig. 1) (UCAR/The COMET Program ) https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/earth-system/energy-from-sun.
• Although we classify energy into two groups, namely (1) ‘Fossil Fuels’ (i.e., Coal, Natural Gas, and Oil) and (2) ‘Renewable’ Energy (E.g., Solar, Wind, and Hydro), both groups derive their energy from the Sun (Fig. 2).

The Bad

• Chandrasekharam and Ranjith Pathegama {2020) provide a brilliant analysis of “CO₂ emissions from renewables”. Accordingly, Solar PV cells emit more CO₂ than Coal, Oil, and Natural Gas (Fig. 3). The total CO₂ emissions during the lifecycle of a solar PV cell are about 3,312 × 10⁶ kg.
• In addition to the emissions related to the manufacture of solar PV cells, solar panels and solar cell waste management are of great concern. Globally the generation of solar panel waste will be of the order of 78 million tons (Weckend et al. 2016).
• Countries involved in the manufacture of solar PV cells will emit considerable amounts of CO₂ from this source in addition to coal-based thermal power plants (Fig. 4). Solar PV cells may not emit CO₂ during the generation of electricity, but during their lifetime emissions are considerable. Therefore, solar PV cannot be considered a zero-emission source (Chandrasekharam and Ranjith Pathegama, 2020).

The Ugly

§ The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project (Fig. 5A) which was a solar thermal power project with an installed capacity of 110 megawatt (MW) and 1.1 gigawatt-hours of energy storage located near Tonopah, about 190 miles (310 km) northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, at an estimated cost of $1 billion, filed for bankruptcy in 2020 (Fig. 5A).

§ Solyndra (Solar Energy Project). (Fig. 5B), a ‘renewable’ energy firm that became a darling of the Obama Administration, shut the doors of its California headquarters Wednesday on August 31, 2011, Solyndra Inc. raising fresh questions from critics about political favoritism and wasted money in the federal loan program. The manufacturer of rooftop solar panels opened its doors in 2005, and in 2009 became the first recipient of an Obama administration energy loan guarantee – a $535 million federal commitment that helped minimize the risk to venture capital firms backing the solar startup.

• The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the combined wind + solar investment and production tax credits will increase federal deficits by $300 billion over 2026–2035. That averages to roughly $30 billion per year, but this is for both wind and solar, not solar alone. By comparison, ‘Fossil Fuels’ receive $3 billion per year in federal subsidies. Analysts who count only explicit, measurable federal tax breaks (e.g., intangible drilling costs, percentage depletion, geological & geophysical amortization) estimate annual subsidies at roughly $2–3 billion. This figure is based on EIA and Treasury fiscal data and highlighted by Energy Intelligence.
• The recent U.S./Israel-Iran War, which began on February 28, 2026, triggered the closure of the Strait of Hormuz—the world’s most critical oil chokepoint—halting roughly 20 percent of global petroleum liquids supply and effectively stopping oil and LNG exports from the Persian Gulf (Fig. 6).
• This sudden disruption has caused sharp price spikes in ‘fossil fuels’ (Fig. 7) and forced major producers to curtail output, underscoring their indispensable role in meeting global energy demand. In contrast, solar module prices have shown no meaningful response (Fig. 8), revealing that solar energy has failed to act as a viable or scalable substitute during this genuine energy crisis. These events empirically demonstrate that ‘fossil fuels’ remain absolutely essential, while solar modules have proven largely obsolete when they are needed most.

I am grateful to Jean Shanmugam for her comments.

See more here substack.com

Header image: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP

Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method