Clean energy has a dirty secret
Lead-acid batteries
The saying “there is no free lunch” applies to clean energy also because even clean energy has a carbon footprint. But there is a darker secret about clean power that often stays hidden: lead contamination and lead poisoning. The increasing usage of clean energy is a good trend, but conversations about its growth need honesty regarding its dirtier side.
A thoughtful assessment of all energy sources confirms that none come without a carbon footprint or a carbon cost. Hydroelectric, for example, requires a dam and turbines. The Bonneville Dam stretches across the Columbia River just east of Portland, Oregon. The dam, built in the 1930s, blocks a narrow section of the river as it passes through the Columbia River Gorge. At this location on the Washington-Oregon boundary, the river cuts across the Cascade mountain range on its way from the USA western interior to the Pacific Ocean. The dam is part of a hydroelectric grid that provides half of the Pacific Northwest’s total electricity needs.
Construction of the Bonneville dam required a million cubic yards of concrete (2 million tons). Making this concrete required about 300,000 tones of Portland cement and production of the Portland cement, in turn, generated 370,000 tons of CO2. Hydroelectric dams, wind turbines, and solar panels all carry a carbon cost…
