The Non-Toxic Solar Alliance e.V. (NTSA) was initiated by partners and affiliates of the consultancy Bohnen Kallmorgen & Partner (BKP) and is supported by scientists, researchers, and members of the civil society, who are convinced that renewable energies and particularly solar should play a key role in overcoming the energy and climate challenges of the 21st century.

We advocate a sustainable economy that redeems the pledge for clean energy from renewable sources. It is clear that renewable energy sources, such as wind power, biomass and PV are the future. A key component of a consistent sustainable energy economy is the avoidance of external costs, both today and with regard to future generations. The benchmarks that we must apply to fossil fuels and nuclear energy also have to be adhered to by the renewable energies. Otherwise, the credibility of the entire sector is put at risk.

The idea for NTSA was born in 2009 when policy makers, media and scientists noted a strong asymmetry in the debate on whether to include PV modules under one of the most important environmental Directives in the EU restricting hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS): Producers of solar panels containing a significant amount of toxic materials were strongly lobbying for an exemption of PV panels in Brussels while the majority of PV companies that work with clean production methods (such as silicon) did not focus on this highly relevant issue. We concluded this to be against the interests of the environment, consumers and the silicon-based PV companies: The green solar industry should lead by examples and push for highest environmental standards.

Based on this analysis NTSA was founded in December 2009 to work with the industry, policymakers and NGOs to make PV production in Europe compliant with highest environmental standards and to abandon the use of toxic materials in solar modules. From the beginning, NTSA was separated in two entities that are legally and financially independent from each other: NTSA e.V. and NTSA Research Group (NTSA RG).

During the 2009-2010 recast process of the RoHS Directive NTSA e.V. helped educating policy makers and the public to better understand the relevance of toxins in solar modules. We received strong public support by leading international scientist  and the highly renowned Federation of German Scientists (VDW) backed our cause. In addition, international PV manufacturers such as Bosch Solar, REC, Photovoltech, SolarWorld and Wacker had taken identical or similar positions to NTSA e.V. in May 2010. NTSA thereafter reduced its activities and focused on monitoring and providing academic evidence for our arguments.

We note with satisfaction that in April 2011, the EU Commission’s DG Environment published a study by Bio Intelligence Service, calling for an inclusion of PV under the equally important EU Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE). The ensuing stakeholder consultation from April 19 to June 17 2011 yielded a vast majority supporting an inclusion of PV under WEEE.

Most notably the European Environmental Bureau, an umbrella organization of European environmental NGOs, specifically criticized the prior decision to exclude PV from RoHS: "EEB would like to emphasize its strong support of a strict monitoring of the exclusion of PV panels from the RoHS directive. As technology and market develops with PV panels containing rare and or toxic materials, a strict follow up is necessary to avoid environmental risks of having such substances in PV panels. This is especially necessary since PV panels can be produced without contents of toxics. Having temporarily opened up for producing PV panels with toxic materials in them, the inclusion of  PV panels into WEEE should be seen as a crucial and obvious policy choice, in order to minimize the environmental effects."