{"id":260804,"date":"2023-06-05T20:15:09","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T18:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=260804"},"modified":"2023-06-05T20:15:12","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T18:15:12","slug":"solar-panels-an-eco-disaster-waiting-to-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=260804","title":{"rendered":"Solar panels \u2013 an eco-disaster waiting to\u00a0happen?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Tallbloke’s Talkshop<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

June 4, 2023 by\u00a0oldbrew<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Image credit: solaruk.net<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same question can be asked of wind turbines and old lithium-based batteries. Experts warn of a waste mountain by 2050.<\/em>
\u2013 \u2013 \u2013
While they are being promoted around the world as a crucial weapon in reducing carbon emissions, solar panels only have a lifespan of up to 25 years, says BBC News<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts say billions of panels will eventually all need to be disposed of and replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe world has installed more than one terawatt of solar capacity. Ordinary solar panels have a capacity of about 400W, so if you count both rooftops and solar farms, there could be as many as 2.5 billion solar panels,\u201d says Dr Rong Deng, an expert in solar panel recycling at the University of New South Wales in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the British government, there are tens of millions of solar panels in the UK. But the specialist infrastructure to scrap and recycle them is lacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Energy experts are calling for urgent government action to prevent a looming global environmental disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a waste mountain by 2050, unless we get recycling chains going now,\u201d says Ute Collier, deputy director of the International Renewable Energy Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re producing more and more solar panels \u2013 which is great \u2013 but how are we going to deal with the waste?\u201d she asks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is hoped a major step will be taken at the end of June, when the world\u2019s first factory dedicated to fully recycling solar panels officially opens in France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ROSI, the specialist solar recycling company which owns the facility, in the Alpine city of Grenoble, hopes eventually to be able to extract and re-use 99% of a unit\u2019s components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as recycling the glass fronts and aluminium frames, the new factory can recover nearly all of the precious materials contained within the panels, such as silver and copper, which are typically some of the hardest materials to extract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These rare materials can subsequently be recycled and reused to make new, more powerful, solar units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conventional methods of recycling solar panels recover most of the aluminium and glass \u2013 but ROSI says the glass, in particular, is of relatively low-quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The glass recovered using those methods can be used to create tiles, or in sandblasting \u2013 it can also be mixed with other materials to make asphalt \u2013 but it cannot be used in applications where high-grade glass is required, such as the production of new solar panels.
. . .
\u201cBy 2030, we think we\u2019re going to have four million tonnes [of scrap] \u2013 which is still manageable \u2013 but by 2050, we could end up with more than 200 million tonnes globally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To put that into perspect<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To put that into perspective, the world currently produces a total of 400 million tonnes of plastic every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full article\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To put that into perspective, the world currently produces a total of 400 million tonnes of plastic every year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":260813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691819980,691818412],"class_list":{"0":"post-260804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-eco-disaster","9":"tag-solar-panels","11":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/0GettyImages-856896122-1024x696-1.jpg?fit=1024%2C696&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-15Qw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":260953,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=260953","url_meta":{"origin":260804,"position":0},"title":"Solar Panels: The Unspoken Environmental Cost","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"For more than a decade, climate change skeptics have been sounding the alarm about the not-so-distant consequences of the global push for renewable energy, particularly solar panels. 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Dilute, intermittent, and thus inefficient? Yes. Energy sprawl requiring service roads and transmission lines in the wild? Yes. 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