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Global asymmetries in the rise of solar power: An LCA-based account of ecologically unequal exchange between Germany and China 2002–2018

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  • Roos, Andreas

Abstract

Global installations of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology have reached unprecedented levels and is expected to further rise in the coming decades. Conventional interpretations have neglected international trade flows and the globally uneven valuation of labor and resources as relevant for the commercialization of solar PV technology. This study challenges these interpretations by assessing whether the rapid increase in solar power was based an uneven flow of resources in the world economy. The study relies on an LCA-based account of ecologically unequal exchange in two focal PV commodities between Germany and China 2002–2018. The results show how this trade was characterized by an intensifying rate of ecologically unequal exchange, which gradually improved Germany's prospect of installing solar PV modules at the expense of increasing environmental loads in China. This environmental load displacement contributed to 15 times lower production costs per watt and considerably higher EROI (from 2.2:1 to 77:1) and power density (from 4.3 W/m2 to 143 W/m2) in Germany. The study concludes that ecologically unequal exchange may have been integral to the global rise of solar power and cautions that environmental load displacements may be inherent to the success of social metabolisms reliant upon solar energy harnessed through PV technology.

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  • Roos, Andreas, 2022. "Global asymmetries in the rise of solar power: An LCA-based account of ecologically unequal exchange between Germany and China 2002–2018," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:199:y:2022:i:c:s092180092200146x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107484
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    2. Roos, Andreas, 2024. "Renewing the Subterranean Energy Regime? How Petroculture Obscures the Materiality of Deep Geothermal Energy Technology in Sweden," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).

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