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by thescriptkiddie 2195 days ago
The term you are looking for is "embodied energy" or "embodied carbon".

https://heetma.org/2015/04/09/embodied-energy-in-photovoltai...

1 comments

A few points of nuance:

- pollution comes in many forms, not just carbon

- only looking at the replacement product is insufficient; you need to look at the net difference in all inputs and byproducts, as well as the expected lifetimes of the two comparable prodcuts.