This sort of study is dumb as it misses the bigger picture.

The focus on CO2 is for climate purposes. If one is genuinely concerned about the environment then one would look at all power generation technologies, not only solar. If one did this then solar would not be a focus of concern for power generation. Articles like this one suggest that solar is an answer to climate change, when, at best, it is a distraction.

I agree that this kind of exercise is only academic in nature and mostly useless pragmatically once you layer in the complexities of energy markets.

I actually would say the solutions to climate change from a grid perspective are pretty straightforward but tough to implement. New generation: Large nuclear hubs, smrs, solar and battery. hydro and wind as is.