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What happens when solar panels die? (www.engadget.com)

submitted 1 month ago by jeffw@lemmy.world to c/climate@slrpnk.net

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[–] fhqwgads@possumpat.io 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Oh no not this again. These articles pop up all the time and they're kind of awful when put in context - like yeah solar panels aren't perfect, but they're pretty dang close honestly. It's great that they mention the stuff at the end about laser welding, but the rest of the article is kind of just fear mongering.

Firstly, panels don't really go bad - the article mentions this. But that doesn't mean they have to be thrown away. Yeah, it makes sense to put 300w/m² panels on your solar farm and replace your old 200w/m² panels. But those old panels are generally still producing power, and can be sold as used for projects less focused on absolute peak efficiency. The old three Rs tell us, Reuse is generally better than Recycle.

Secondly, panels don't randomly leech heavy metals. They sometimes have lead based solder, and contain small amounts of cadmium. If the panel is in tact in a pile or deployed it's all locked up within the panel and doesn't just jump out. It can leech out if you put ground up panels in an acidic landfill that leeches into the ground water - that's bad so we shouldn't do that, but we already don't and have even more regulation coming.

Panels are mostly glass and aluminum by weight, they're not like 20% lead or anything crazy. Recycling them safely is not some kind of crazy future tech, just a matter of regulation and economics.

Moreover, the amounts they contain are miniscule compared to what fossil fuels produce. As Nickelback says, look at this graph: graph showing oil based energy producing like 40 times more cadmium.

from here

Or this North Carolina paper:

Every GWh of electricity generated by burning coal produces about 4 grams ofcadmium air emissions.21 Even though North Carolina produces a significant fraction of our electricity from coal, electricity from solar offsets much more natural gas than coal due to natural gas plants being able to adjust their rate of production more easily and quickly. If solar electricity offsets 90% natural gas and 10% coal, each 5-megawatt (5 MWAC, which is generally 7 MWDC) CdTe solar facility in North Carolina keeps about 157 grams, or about a third of a pound, of cadmium out of ourenvironment.

from here

And as far as total landfill waste its dwarfed by what fossil fuels produce, even just general consumer trash:

from this paper via this blog

For most panels it seems like the most polluting thing about them is that they are produced using our current grid and not other solar panels.