Toxic Waste To Produce Solar Panels

An article in forbes asks if solar panels are so clean why do they produce so much toxic waste the piece sums up some problems with solar energy concisely in three statements by a senior chinese solar official.

Toxic waste to produce solar panels. Cadmium is a particular toxic waste problem. Nguyen phd toxic chemicals in solar panels include cadmium telluride copper indium selenide cadmium gallium di selenide copper indium gallium di selenide hexafluoroethane lead and polyvinyl fluoride. According to cancer biologist david h. Environmental progress investigated the problem to see how the problem compared to the much more high profile issue of nuclear waste.

Solar panels create 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than do nuclear power plants. Silicon tetrachloride a byproduct of producing crystalline silicon is also highly toxic. Solar panels contain lead cadmium and other toxic chemicals that cannot be removed without breaking apart the entire panel. Environmental scientists and solar industry leaders are raising the red flag about used solar panels which contain toxic heavy metals and are considered hazardous waste.

Meanwhile solar energy has its own unanswered questions. This is a waste category that includes common household and business throwaways like old tvs and dead batteries. The international renewable energy agency estimated that there were about 250 000 metric tons of solar panel waste in the world at the end of 2016 and that the figure could reach 78 million metric tons by 2050. California passed sb 489 in 2015 to provide guidance for the safe disposal of defunct solar panels designating them a universal waste.

According to cancer biologist david h. Worse rainwater can wash many of these toxics out of the fragments of solar modules over time. The fact that cadmium can be washed out of solar modules by rainwater is increasingly a concern for local environmentalists like the concerned citizens of fawn lake in virginia where a 6 350 acre solar farm to partly power microsoft data centers is being proposed. If solar and nuclear produce the same amount of electricity over the next 25 years that nuclear produced in 2016 and the waste is stacked on football fields the nuclear waste would reach the height of the leaning tower of pisa 52 meters while.

Solar panels generate 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than nuclear power plants. Nguyen phd toxic chemicals in solar panels include cadmium telluride copper indium selenide cadmium gallium di selenide copper indium gallium di selenide hexafluoroethane lead and polyvinyl fluoride.