No, they are the opposite. They give you natural power and are a good choice if you wish to help the environment.

Unfortunately, many people think like this. The reality though is that, at best, they are neutral for the environment and probably have a slight negative impact compared to uncleaned coal fired power generation.

Silicon cells are made with tremendous volumes of energy. The gases and chemicals used are also extremely toxic and include gases like phosgene (a nerve gas that smells like fish).

They give us back that energy that we used to produce them very slowly, over many decades. It is unfortunate that most of these panels do not live many decades.

The typical solar panel will pay for itself in under two decades (cost wise). This is also their projected life span. Typical panels produce about 75% of their rated power when new for a couple of hours each day. After three years, this number will start to decrease.

Solar panels for your home are a great way to feel smug about helping the environment while actually hurting it, in most situations.

They are great for quiet power in remote applications! If I had it to do over, I would NEVER have put solar panels on my home. The payback here is many decades after they are dead. There is also a fair amount of monthly maintenance required on them.

Bottom line, they do nothing positive for the environment, increase your work load and do give you a certain satisfaction that you are taking money from the power company.