Factory makes solar panels with desert sand

More and more homes are currently using solar panels, as an ecological gesture and / or to reduce their electricity bills. However, did you know that manufacturing solar panels always comes at a cost from an ecological point of view? Indeed, their manufacture produces 72 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour. Nevertheless, one company seems to have solved the problem.

Based on information fromInteresting Engineering, a start-up called Maana Electric, based in Luxembourg, has developed several prototypes of a machine capable of making solar panels entirely clean. How? ‘Or’ What ? Using only sand and electricity. The project is called TerraBox.

Pixabay credits

Solar panels are manufactured by a fully automated factory

The TerraBox project is distinguished by the fact that the company uses a kind of automated factory and produces its panels with sand harvested from the desert. Moreover, the famous machine would be in a container to facilitate its transport in the middle of the desert. The process is automated and only requires a human presence for maintenance.

For the moment, Maana Electric has given few details on the project. Nevertheless, we can see in a visual provided by the company, a solar farm extending into the desert. We also see a container as well as excavators which carry the sand nearby.

The company said several pilot projects are expected to be rolled out as early as 2022. Maana Electric will also be working on another version of the machine that will be sent to the Moon to extract regolith and obtain high purity silicon. The objective with silicon would be to manufacture electronic components in order to alleviate the shortages of electronic components.