REPORT
On Saturday 22nd April, 2023, a webinar event titled “How Green is Solar Photovoltaic Energy System?” was held commemorating the IEEE-PESDAY 2022. theme: Powering a Climate Safer Future. The event was hosted by a team of Power and Energy Ambassadors, IEEE Rivers State University Ambassadors with one volunteer, Emmanuel Apke. It was attended by over 61 participants from different parts of the world.
I Naanee Barinyima PESDAY23-169 was the facilitator. I started the meeting at exactly 4:pm GMT+1 by appreciating PES and explaining the essence of the webinar. The webinar is aimed at critically evaluating solar photovoltaic energy system to see if they were as renewable as advertised.
Presentation
Vincent Douglas Chukwumela PESDAY23-061 read a brief biography of the speaker and introduced the speaker.
The speaker, Engr Dr. Agu Collins is the director of Research and Development (R&D) Department of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Our speaker Introduced the solar photovoltaic systems, it’s history and also the components of the system.
He went to to tell us about the dark side of Solar Photovoltaic Energy system. Here he made us understand that solar photovoltaic energy systems after installation and during operation does not emit green house gas. But, he exposed us to the climatic effect of the solar photovoltaic systems value chain.
The value chain of solar photovoltaic energy systems included extraction of raw materials such as extraction of silicon,copper and aluminium and also the mining of metals like lithium for the production of lithium ion batteries which degrades the environment. The manufacturing of the PV cells involved processes that leads to the emission of harmful pollutants like NOx, SF6, SiCl4 in to the environment which could affect public health. We also learnt that the end of their use PV system increase in electronic waste which are difficult to recycle. In operation the lithium ion batteries during thermal runway event emit harmful gas like carbon monoxide, hydrogen fluoride.
He recommended that solar powered hydrolysers which uses only water as input and fuel cells be used to store energy replacing batteries to reduce the carbon imprint.
In conclusion, though PV system have environmental benefits the manufacturing process and the end of life of PV system should not be overlooked. He urged manufacturers to also consider the impact of manufacturing PV system on the environment and opt for more greener ways to manufacture them.
Q&A section
The question and answer section was taken by Peace Sunday PESDAY23-113. Our virtual attendees participated by asking questions and received answers from the speaker. A wide range questions concerning the topic was asked to the speaker.These are some the questions asked;
1 What other energy source was greener. Answer Wind energy
2. What is the feasibility of going into biogas energy production as substitute in Nigeria
Answer: it’s highly feasible considering the amount of agricultural waste and sewage produced in the country. The raw materials for biogas energy are readily available in Nigeria
3. Are we at risk of explosion from the batteries
Answer: Hardly but yes in the event of thermal runway (overheating) and battery expiration.
PES membership registration promotion
We also invited Engr Aneke Ezekiel the PES day Representative of Nigeria to address attendees and promote IEEE and PES membership registration.
Advertising our next webinar event
We advertised our next webinar event titled Energy Management for Climate Safer Future. Speaker: Engr Azuka Time : 4:00 GMT+1 Tuesday 25th April 2023
Closing
Barimene Abuelo PESDAY23-153 took screenshots of the event and recorded number of attendees and some emails address. I Naanee Barinyima thanked everyone for attending. And ended the meeting by 5:30pm.