Solar panels have always bothered me because they require such intense manufacturing and usage of scarce resources. TLDR of article: “Many people will argue that if low-tech solar panels are less efficient, we would need more solar panels to produce the same power output. Consequently, the resources saved by low-tech production methods would be compensated by the extra resources to build more solar panels. However, efficiency is only crucial when we take energy demand for granted, sacrificing some efficiency may gain us a lot in sustainability.”
that website is still alive ? how nice
also we need to achieve net positive: pv panel factories need to be fully powered by solar, else a panel would always carry some carbon footprint
I love how that site is not in the slightest enshitified, just as we would expect for something with low-tech in the name. No CAPTCHAs or popups, cookie walls or other bullshit. Very hard to find good websites like this. Search engines should give that site a top ranking.
agreed, it is a fantastic website. I wish there were more like it.
I ordered their paperback magazine, which can be printed on demand. Looking forward to reading it