Lead pollution due to solar energy development

According to a new study published last week, plans for China and India aimed at creating solar energy risk increasing lead pollution.

Analysis by scientists at the University of Tennessee (USA) said that the move could produce more than 2.4 million tons of lead pollutants in China and India. Because solar power grid systems in both countries use lead-acid batteries to store energy.

The research team also found that the extraction and melting of batteries during the production and recycling processes caused a large number of pollutants to leak into the environment (33% in China and 22 in India. %). This finding has been published in the Energy Policy magazine.

Earlier, India plans to increase by 12 gigawatts of solar energy by 2022, with the distribution of 20 million solar light bulbs. The purpose of this work is to provide renewable energy for 80,000 villages outside the grid. So it will have to depend on lead batteries, the authors said.

Based on what is being produced by production units in India and China, the team estimates the lead emissions of the two countries by one third of the world's emissions.

Researcher of renewable energy systems in developing countries, Subhes Bhattacharyya from Dundee University, UK, said that the main problem arises from handling batteries.

In addition, the Government representative also emphasized India's solar plan focusing on grid-based energy, so lead batteries are unnecessary.