A big problem that has surfaced over the past decades that you may have heard of is climate change. Solar panels can generate electricity without emitting carbon. Only 5.4% of the world’s electricity is generated with solar. So why aren’t we using more solar power?

I started by researching solar panels and problems related to carbon emissions and energy demands. I found some interesting articles about energy demands in the 5 countries with the most emissions and in developing countries. Then I researched mass solar implementation in developing countries. After doing further research on that I started on the impacts of mass solar implementation. Then finally to the environmental impacts of large-scale solar implementation. After looking into that I started to look more into home solar panel use. I started to blend both topics together creating my finalized topic.

What are solar panels?
A solar panel is a form of renewable energy. It works by using the photovoltaic effect, where photons hit a semiconductor material (usually silicon) which causes electrons to move, generating an electrical current. You can find solar panels anywhere from on top of houses to huge rows on farms.  They are currently being integrated into our society today. More and more organizations are offering incentives for people to buy solar panels. 

Why are solar panels important?
Solar panels are important because they can generate energy without emitting carbon into the atmosphere. They have some environmental benefits if placed in a spot such as a canal that is under constant sunlight, that canal will warm up, which isn’t healthy for fish passing though and it causes evaporation. A big problem that has surfaced over the past decades is climate change. This is when we emit carbon, it collects in the atmosphere which intensifies the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is when light hits the planet and it heats the atmosphere. If there are more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, it traps more heat in, heating the planet, potentially melting glaciers around the world causing oceans to rise. It is (effectively) accelerating our civilisation to the next tropical age. The earth naturally processes carbon but is not prepared to do so at a higher rate. A recent study showed that if we put solar panels on every rooftop in the world (286,393 km2) it would lower the global temperature by up to 0.13 degrees Celsius by 2050. 

What is stopping people from buying solar panels?
Some barriers include cost, space issues and power demands.

Cost: Buying solar panels can be expensive, ranging from $18,200 to $22,890 dollars CAD. But some organisations and governments are offering mortgages or grants for solar panels. The Greener Homes Program is run by the Canadian federal government, and offers an interest-free loan amounting of up to $40,000 for energy-saving improvements on your home such as solar energy, water heating and more. But some countries may not be able to afford such programs or have the infrastructure to support it. 

Power demands: Depending on the hours of sunlight in the area, solar panels might not generate enough to meet the demand of the household. This fact and uncertainty are what is discouraging some buyers from getting solar panels. The only (effective) way to make sure this won’t happen is to also adapt your lifestyle to use less energy. We may also need to develop better batteries to store the electricity generated during the day. If allowed in your region, you can sell back excess electricity to the power grid.

Space issues for roof top solar: Some people have smaller homes, which might not be able to house enough solar panels to cover their entire energy bill. This also might be a challenge if somebody lives in a condominium or apartment. One idea to support these people is to have communal solar panels on the roof, around the entrance or on the side of the building. This could also work in a small community. According to the City of Calgary’s Residential Solar Calculator, many Calgary homes have high potential for solar power, but there are lots of large buildings such as school or industrial buildings have even more solar potential. 

Land use: One concern of large-scale solar implementation is land use. It is estimated that for every 1 megawatt of electricity produced, 3.5 to 10 acres of land is used. The largest solar facility in China is roughly the size of New York City. This is a lot of space for a 5-gigawatt (GW) capacity. But one larger natural gas plant could generate 1.5 GW. Some places may not have enough room for large facility. It also may not be the best use of that space. We could integrate them into places all around us that aren’t being used. One great example of this is the Telus Spark parking lot in Calgary. They have put solar panels over the parking stalls to provide shade for the cars and energy for the building. 

Water use: Normal PV cells do not use water for generating electricity, but some water is used to manufacture PV components. Concentrating solar thermal plants (also known as CSP) require water to cool off (like all other thermal plants). The amount of water used depends on the type of cooling system. Some other CSP plants use dry cooling systems (air), but wet cooling is more common. 

Hazardous materials: Multiple hazardous materials are used in the manufacturing of PV cells. Most of which are used to clean the semiconductor. These materials include hydrogen fluoride, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, acetone, nitric acid and trichloromethyl methane. The amount of these materials depends on the type of PV cell and the amount of cleaning of the semiconductor needed.  Thin-film PV cells contain more toxic materials such as gallium arsenide, cadmium-telluride and copper-indium-gallium-diselenide. If all these materials are not disposed of in a safe and proper manner, they could cause environmental and public health problems. Scientists are trying to make solar panels out of natural or waste materials, but we haven’t produced anything yet to manufacture on a large scale.
 

Which countries emit the most carbon every year?
China: 31.49% 
U.S: 13%
India: 8.1%
Russia: 4.81%
Japan: 2.62%
*Percent of total global emissions

World’s largest solar farms

1. Xinjiang solar farm — China
•    5GW capacity
roughly the same area as New York City

2. Golmud Solar Park — China
•    2.8 GW capacity

3. Bhadla Solar Park — India
•    2.7 GW capacity
•    The site covers 14,000 acres, or 56 km2—equivalent to 3% of the entire surface area of London or just under the size of Manhattan (59.1 km2).

4. Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park — UAE
•    52,881 acres
•    2.62GW capacity

5. Pavagada Solar Park — India
•    13,000 acres
•    2.05GW capacity

6. Benban Solar Park — Egypt
•    1.8GW capacity

7. The Tengger Desert Solar Park — China
•    10,626 acres
•    1.5GW capacity
•    Can power 600,000 homes

8. Noor Abu Dhabi Solar Power Project — Abu Dhabi
•    1,977 acres and 
•    1.2 GW capacity
•    Powers 90,000 homes

9. Datong Solar Power Top Runner Base — China
•    Once finished it will have a capacity of over 3GW capacity 
•    Panda Green Energy used dark monocrystalline silicon and lighter thin film cells

10. Jinchuan Solar Park — China
•    1.03 GW capacity

11. Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park — India
•    1 GW capacity 

12. Yanchi Ningxia Solar Park — China
•    2.5 million solar panels. 
•    1GW capacity

13. Villanueva Plant — Mexico
•    754 MW capacity
•    Powers 1.2 million homes

14. Kamuthi Solar Power Station — India
•    Powers 265,000 homes. 
•    648 MW capacity

15. Francisco Pizarro — Spain
•    590 MW capacity
•    Powers around 334,400 homes.

Power generation from solar photovoltaic (PV) increased by a record 320 TWh in 2023, up by 25% on 2022. Solar PV accounted for 5.4% of total global electricity generation, and it remains the third largest renewable electricity technology behind hydropower and wind.
According to the City of Calgary, Calgary has high solar potential. Most large rooftops like schools and industrial buildings have a higher potential. For a small house (2000 sq. ft and below), it costs around $18,000 to buy and install solar panels.

Around the world there are many huge plants, the biggest being able to power one million homes in Great Britain for 5 hours on 1 charge. One local example of a solar plant is the Medicine Hat solar plant which will be able to power Medicine Hat once it’s built. This plant was built on contaminated land (where they were not able to build homes, industrial buildings or plant crops) which is a great place to build a solar farm. It was difficult to research large-scale solar implementation and then compare countries because of different average wealth, different infrastructure and different knowledge on how to install the panels.
 

Sources of error
•    A lot of my sources and studies I read were based on estimates, meaning they may not be exact or could be overstating the potential or problems of solar energy. 
•    Some of my sources are older, so they may be outdated, or newer technology would change the numbers.
•    I didn’t see which conditions were affected from region to region.
•    It’s hard to compare countries and information sources.

Is solar power implementation worth it? The research has shown that people have started to switch to renewable energy sources. By using renewable energy, we are creating and protecting a sustainable future for all of us now and for the generations to come. But solar energy is far from perfect. Scientists from around the world are trying to improve solar energy by lowering the installation cost, making them more efficient (as the current average conversion rate is between 15% to 22%), and making them with cheaper materials. The conversion rates are improving as scientists are trying to make high conversion rates a normal thing in solar panels. In this project I found that some of the barriers include cost, space issues and power demand which make it difficult to have solar power. But there are possible solutions to all of these problems. It makes sense for large-scale solar to be in places like deserts (China, India or Abu Dhabi), or in places like Medicine Hat where their facility is on a contaminated field. It doesn’t make sense to do large-scale solar where people live or where large ecosystems are. But there are solutions to these problems, such as making solar panels with cheaper materials, integrating them into society or have government funded projects. Rooftop solar could be placed on more buildings in cities like Calgary or places like parking lots or contaminated sites. After researching all of this, I believe that the positive impacts outweigh the costs. Solar energy is only one part of the solution. Other renewables and different machines (such as a direct air capture machine, which takes carbon right out of the atmosphere) are other parts of what will be the solution. It is crucial that we move away from carbon-emitting sources, and approach to renewables such as solar panels.

Future Considerations:
•    Next time I could use the Residential Solar Calculator to calculate whether or not Calgary is suitable for large-scale solar implementation, or how much solar electricity could be generated.
•    I could get into the actual cost of a large-scale solar implementation in Calgary.
•    I could research other renewable energy sources, such as large-scale wind- or hydro-power plants.
 

https://cleanair.org/gaspowerplants/#:~:text=Some%20smaller%20plants%20produce%2022,harmful%20air%20pollutants%20each%20year.
Clean Air Council. (2025). Natural Gas-Fired Power Plants [Accessed 21 Mar. 2025]

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6685258#:~:text=Scientists%20set%20out%20to%20explore,up%20to%200.13%C2%B0C.
CBC News. (2025) What if we put solar panels on every roof in the world? [Accessed 21 Mar. 2025]

https://www.calgary.ca/environment/resources/residential-solar-calculator.html
(2024) Residential solar calculator. The City of Calgary. [Accessed 20 Mar. 2025]

https://www.iea.org/energy-system/renewables/solar-pv
(2024)  Solar PV is set to become the largest renewable energy source by 2029. IEA. [Accessed 20 Mar. 2025]

https://www.statista.com/statistics/217265/largest-solar-pv-power-plants-in-operation-worldwide/
(2024). Largest solar photovoltaic power plants worldwide as of May 2023, by capacity. Statista. 
[Accessed 20 Mar. 2025]

https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/solar-panel-farm-worlds-biggest-china-b2556888.html
Cuthbertson, A. (2024). World’s biggest solar farm goes online, big enough to power a country [Accessed 20 Mar. 2025]

https://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/solar-panels/biggest-solar-farms
Gill, T. (2024). The world’s biggest solar farms. Ecoexperts. [Accessed 20 Mar. 2025]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378023001620
Stock, R. and Sovacool, B.K. (2024). Blinded by sunspots: Revealing the multidimensional and intersectional inequities of solar energy in India. Global environmental change, 84, pp.102796–102796. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102796.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421522000933
Sovacool, B.K., Barnacle, M.L., Smith, A. and Brisbois, M.C. (2022). Towards improved solar energy justice: Exploring the complex inequities of household adoption of photovoltaic panels. Energy Policy, 164, p.112868. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112868.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629621004060
Akter, S. and Bagchi, K. (2021). Is off-grid residential solar power inclusive? Solar power adoption, energy poverty, and social inequality in India. Energy Research & Social Science, 82, p.102314. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102314.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364032118301527
Shahsavari, A. and Akbari, M. (2018). Potential of solar energy in developing countries for reducing energy-related emissions. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, [online] 90(90), pp.275–291. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2018.03.065.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0038092X2200281X
Kumar Singh, A., Prasath Kumar, V.R. and Krishnaraj, L. (2022). Emerging technology trends in the C&I rooftop solar market in India: Case study on datacentre – Retrofit with BIPV by U-Solar. Solar Energy, 238, pp.203–215. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2022.04.033.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/271748/the-largest-emitters-of-co2-in-the-world/
Tiseo, I. (2021). CO2 emissions by country. [online] Statista.

https://www.ecohedge.com/blog/carbon-measurement-understanding-scope-1-3/
Ecohedge.com. (2024). Carbon Measurement: Understanding Scope 1-3. [Accessed 19 Jan. 2025].

https://www.c2es.org/content/international-emissions/
Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (2018). Global Emissions | Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. [Accessed 17 Jan. 2025].

https://www.greenmatch.co.uk/blog/countries-with-the-highest-carbon-footprint
Mckay, B. (2023). Countries With The Highest Carbon Footprint. GreenMatch.co.uk. [Accessed 27 Dec. 2024].

https://www.wri.org/insights/interactive-chart-shows-changes-worlds-top-10-emitters
Friedrich, J., Ge, M., Pickens, A. and Vigna, L. (2023). This Interactive Chart Shows Changes in the World’s Top 10 Emitters. World Resources Institute.  [Accessed 12 Jan. 2025].

https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/co2-emissions-by-country/#google_vignette
www.worldometers.info. (n.d.). CO2 Emissions by Country - Worldometer. [Accessed 12 Jan. 2025].

https://climatetrade.com/which-countries-are-the-worlds-biggest-carbon-polluters/
Climate Trade (2021). Which countries are the world’s biggest carbon polluters? Climate Trade. [Jan. 2025].

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/092915/5-countries-produce-most-carbon-dioxide-co2.asp#:~:text=As%20of%202022%2C%20the%20five,India%2C%20Russia%2C%20and%20Japan.
Blokhin, A. (2024). The 5 Countries That Produce the Most Carbon Dioxide (CO2). Investopedia. [Accessed 21 Jan. 2025].

https://www.mybib.com/#/projects/QoYz3W/citations
MyBib Contributors (n.d.). MyBib Citation Manager. MyBib.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-no-growth-for-chinas-emissions-in-q3-2024-despite-coal-power-rebound/#:~:text=Defying%20predictions%20of%20slowing%20growth,up%20of%20growth%20changed%2C%20however.
Myllyvirta, L. (2024). Analysis: No growth for China’s emissions in Q3 2024 despite coal-power rebound - Carbon Brief. Carbon Brief. [Accessed 2 Feb. 2025].

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/china-power-demand-growing-faster-than-expected-2024-industry-association-says-2024-10-29/
Howe, C. (2024). China power demand growing faster than expected in 2024, industry association says. Reuters. [Accessed 4 Feb. 2025].

https://energysmartcanada.com/solar-grants-incentives-rebates-in-alberta-for-2025/#:~:text=The%20Clean%20Energy%20Improvement%20Program,the%20property%2C%20not%20the%20owner.
Brendan (2025). Solar Grants, Incentives & Rebates in Alberta for 2025 • Energy Smart. Energy Smart.  [Accessed 24 Feb. 2025].

https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/environmental-impacts-solar-power
Union of concerned scientists (2013). Environmental Impacts of Solar Power. Union of Concerned Scientists. [Accessed 25 Feb. 2025].

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364032111001675
Turney, D., & Fthenakis, V. (2011). Environmental impacts from the installation and operation of large-scale solar power plants. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

I want to thank my science/math teacher, Mme. Pollock for agreeing to help me with this project. I also want to thank my mom for encouraging me to ask if I could do a science project. My dad helped me with my research and giving me ideas about my project. I really wanted to thank my older sister for helping me put together this project. This is her 6th year of doing a science fair. Thanks to all my friends who helped me with their patience and flexibility in their schedule to help me.