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.

Solar panels generate 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than nuclear power plants. 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. Environmental progress investigated the problem to see how the problem compared to the much more high profile issue of nuclear waste. They also contain lead cadmium and other toxic even carcinogenic chemicals that cannot be removed without breaking apart the entire panel.

This is a waste category that includes common household and business throwaways like old tvs and dead batteries. 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. Solar photovoltaic panels whose operating life is 20 to 30 years lose productivity over time. Cadmium is a particular toxic waste problem.

Solar panels contain lead cadmium and other toxic chemicals that cannot be removed without breaking apart the entire panel. Solar panels create 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than do nuclear power plants. Worse rainwater can wash many of these toxics out of the fragments of solar modules over time. 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.

Silicon tetrachloride a byproduct of producing crystalline silicon is also highly toxic. According to cancer biologist david h. According to cancer biologist david h. 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.

Meanwhile solar energy has its own unanswered questions. California passed sb 489 in 2015 to provide guidance for the safe disposal of defunct solar panels designating them a universal waste.