Solar Panels Pay Back Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Four Months

The impacts of a rare greenhouse gas—nitrogen trifluoride, or NF₃—used to make thin-film photovoltaic panels are offset in under four months by the emissions-free power generation of the panels. This is the finding of a study published in

Environmental Science & Technology. The use of NF₃ has come under scrutiny since scientists found atmospheric concentrations of the chemical were higher than expected and growing at 11% a year, according to

Chemical & Engineering News; the chemical is also used in integrated circuit manufacturing. The new research offers hard numbers for one aspect of photovoltaic manufacture—but a complete life-cycle analysis, accounting for all environmental impacts from manufacture to disposal, is still lacking.