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It depends if you're including the carbon footprint of the entire solar panel build/shipment process (from raw materials to shipping/etc). I'm not sure of the numbers, but installation is a negligible part of the total solar impact to the environment.

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If you use that level of accounting nuclear plants also have a sizeable footprint just from their concrete useage in construction.

I am a fan of nuclear but current economics seem against it even if they are driven by irrational reactions.

But doesn't that carbon footprint assume that the energy to manufacture and transport the panels comes from fossil fuels? Then it seems we would eventually reach a point where a sufficient fraction of the energy to produce and transport would itself come from solar, leading to a reduction and eventual elimination of that carbon footprint.

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