The primary environmental concerns surrounding solar power relate to how they are manufactured and installed. There are no environmental effects caused by the operation of solar power. The materials used in solar manufacturing are often hazardous. Arsenic and cadmium are used, as is silicon, which can create problems if it is inhaled. However, the dangers faced by working with hazardous materials in the solar industry are fairly routine in an industrial society and can be mitigated by careful regulation.
Most solar installations are small-scale, dispersed applications.
They generally utilize unused portions of buildings, such as roofs, or take advantage of the design of the building for use as a collector. For large-scale solar installations, approximately one square kilometre is required for every 20 to 60 megawatts of power produced. This amount of land use, however, is not unusual for utility-scale power plants. The same amount or more is required per unit of energy in a coal-based power plant, especially when the land required for strip mining is taken into account. While detractors of renewable energies point to real drawbacks, a weighing of the energy options indicates these drawbacks are nearly insignificant when weighed against the major problems and issues surrounding conventional energies.