The environmental impact and safety risk associated with the manufacture of solar cells is negligible compared with conventional energy sources such as coal, oil and nuclear power. Especially the silicon that is used almost exclusively in the manufacture of solar cells today is completely harmless.

New technologies, such as cadmium-telluride or copper-indium-diselenide solar cells, do not pose any significant environmental risk either, compared with other energy supply options. Moreover, the manufacturing processes for solar cells are highly sophisticated and thoroughly tried and tested. Even the mass production of solar cells will not pose any environmental or health risks from a chemical-toxicological point of view.