{"id":317462,"date":"2024-04-13T19:30:15","date_gmt":"2024-04-13T17:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=317462"},"modified":"2024-04-13T19:30:17","modified_gmt":"2024-04-13T17:30:17","slug":"if-solar-panels-are-so-clean-why-do-they-produce-so-much-toxic-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=317462","title":{"rendered":"If Solar Panels Are So Clean, Why Do They Produce So Much Toxic Waste?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"723\" height=\"482\" data-attachment-id=\"317466\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?attachment_id=317466\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0gettyimages849056020-scaled-1.webp?fit=1536%2C1024&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1536,1024\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"0gettyimages849056020-scaled-1\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0gettyimages849056020-scaled-1.webp?fit=723%2C482&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0gettyimages849056020-scaled-1.webp?resize=723%2C482&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-317466\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0gettyimages849056020-scaled-1.webp?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0gettyimages849056020-scaled-1.webp?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0gettyimages849056020-scaled-1.webp?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0gettyimages849056020-scaled-1.webp?resize=1200%2C800&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0gettyimages849056020-scaled-1.webp?w=1536&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0gettyimages849056020-scaled-1.webp?w=1446&amp;ssl=1 1446w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 723px) 100vw, 723px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/michaelshellenberger\/\">Michael Shellenberger<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The last few years have seen growing concern over what happens to solar panels at the end of their life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/michaelshellenberger\/2018\/05\/23\/if-solar-panels-are-so-clean-why-do-they-produce-so-much-toxic-waste\/?sh=3cca6830121c\">Forbes<\/a> has the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Consider the following statements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The problem of solar panel disposal \u201cwill explode with full force in two or three decades and wreck the environment\u201d because it \u201cis a huge amount of waste and they are not easy to recycle.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cThe reality is that there is a problem now, and it\u2019s only going to get larger, expanding as rapidly as the PV industry expanded 10 years ago.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cContrary to previous assumptions, pollutants such as lead or carcinogenic cadmium can be almost completely washed out of the fragments of solar modules over a period of several months, for example by rainwater.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Were these statements made by the right-wing Heritage Foundation? Koch-funded global warming deniers? The editorial board of the&nbsp;<em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">None of the above. Rather, the quotes come from&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/society\/article\/2104162\/chinas-ageing-solar-panels-are-going-be-big-environmental-problem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a senior Chinese solar<\/a>&nbsp;official,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/2018\/04\/its-time-to-plan-for-solar-panel-recycling-in-the-united-states\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a 40-year veteran of the U.S. solar industry<\/a>, and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.welt.de\/wirtschaft\/article176294243\/Studie-Umweltrisiken-durch-Schadstoffe-in-Solarmodulen.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">research scientists<\/a>&nbsp;with the German&nbsp;Stuttgart Institute for Photovoltaics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With few environmental journalists&nbsp;willing to report on much of anything other than the good news about renewables, it\u2019s been left to environmental scientists and solar industry leaders to raise the alarm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019ve been working in solar since 1976 and that\u2019s part of my guilt,\u201d the veteran&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/2018\/04\/its-time-to-plan-for-solar-panel-recycling-in-the-united-states\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">solar developer&nbsp;<\/a>told&nbsp;<em>Solar Power World&nbsp;<\/em>last year. \u201cI\u2019ve been involved with millions of solar panels going into the field, and now they\u2019re getting old.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Trouble With Solar Waste<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in 2016&nbsp;estimated there was about 250,000 metric tonnes of solar panel waste in the world at the end of that year.&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.irena.org\/publications\/2016\/Jun\/End-of-life-management-Solar-Photovoltaic-Panels\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">IRENA projected<\/a>&nbsp;that this amount could reach 78&nbsp;<em>million<\/em>&nbsp;metric tonnes by 2050.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Solar panels often contain lead, cadmium, and other toxic chemicals that cannot be removed without breaking apart the entire panel.&nbsp;\u201cApproximately 90% of most PV modules are made up of glass,\u201d&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/solarindustrymag.com\/online\/issues\/SI1507\/FEAT_02_Act-Now-To-Handle-The-Coming-Wave-Of-Toxic-PV-Waste.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">notes<\/a>&nbsp;San Jose State environmental studies professor Dustin Mulvaney. \u201cHowever, this glass often cannot be recycled as float glass due to impurities. Common problematic impurities in glass include plastics, lead, cadmium and antimony.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Researchers with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarpowerinternational.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/N253_9-14-1530.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">undertook a study<\/a>&nbsp;for U.S. solar-owning utilities to plan for end-of-life and concluded that solar panel \u201cdisposal in \u201cregular landfills [is] not recommended in case modules break and toxic materials leach into the soil\u201d and so \u201cdisposal is potentially a major issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California is in the process of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dtsc.ca.gov\/HazardousWaste\/PVRegs.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">determining how to&nbsp;divert solar panels<\/a>&nbsp;from landfills, which is where&nbsp;they currently go, at the end of their life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">California&#8217;s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), which is implementing the new regulations,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=B2bYYpyHJv8&amp;feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">held a meeting last August<\/a>&nbsp;with solar and waste industry&nbsp;representatives to discuss how to deal with the issue of solar waste. At the meeting, the representatives from industry and DTSC all acknowledged how difficult it would be to test to determine whether a solar panel being removed&nbsp;would be classified as hazardous waste or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The DTSC described building a database where solar panels and their toxicity could be tracked by their model numbers, but it&#8217;s not clear DTSC will do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The theory behind the regulations is to make [disposal] less burdensome,&#8221; explained Rick Brausch of DTSC. &#8220;Putting it as universal waste eliminates the testing requirement.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The fact that cadmium can be washed out of solar modules by rainwater&nbsp;is increasingly a concern for local environmentalists like the Concerned Citizens of Fawn Lake in Virginia, where a&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fredericksburg.com\/opinion\/columns\/column-planting-a-mega-solar-farm-in-spotsy-is-a\/article_7a0043b3-af15-58a5-80b9-98ece15c95a6.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">6,350 acre solar farm<\/a>&nbsp;to partly power&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.richmond.com\/business\/local\/microsoft-says-it-will-buy-power-from-virginia-s-largest\/article_a9296399-1bbf-526e-9c42-eb534c9628d0.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Microsoft data centers<\/a>&nbsp;is being proposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe estimate there are 100,000 pounds of cadmium contained in the 1.8 million panels,\u201d Sean Fogarty of the group told me. \u201cLeaching from broken panels damaged during natural events \u2014 hail storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. \u2014 and at decommissioning is a big concern.\u201d &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is real-world precedent for this concern. A tornado in 2015 broke 200,000 solar modules at southern California solar farm Desert Sunlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Any modules that were broken into small bits of glass had to be swept from the ground,&#8221;&nbsp;Mulvaney&nbsp;explained, &#8220;so lots of rocks and dirt got mixed in that would not work in recycling plants that are designed to take modules. These were the cadmium-based modules that failed&nbsp;[hazardous]&nbsp;waste tests, so were treated at a&nbsp;[hazardous] waste facility. But about 70 percent of the modules were actually sent to recycling, and the recycled metals are in new panels today.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last September, the nation\u2019s second largest solar farm, responsible for 40 percent of the island\u2019s solar energy,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theweatherjunkies.com\/single-post\/2017\/09\/28\/Puerto-Rican-Solar-Farms-Heavily-Damaged-By-Hurricane-Maria\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lost a majority of its panels.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read the full story <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/michaelshellenberger\/2018\/05\/23\/if-solar-panels-are-so-clean-why-do-they-produce-so-much-toxic-waste\/?sh=3cca6830121c\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in 2016\u00a0estimated there was about 250,000 metric tonnes of solar panel waste in the world at the end of that year.\u00a0IRENA projected\u00a0that this amount could reach 78\u00a0million\u00a0metric tonnes by 2050.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":317466,"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":[691818412,691828111,691823211,691828110],"class_list":{"0":"post-317462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-solar-panels","9":"tag-the-international-renewable-energy-agency-irena","10":"tag-toxic-chemicals","11":"tag-toxic-waste","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0gettyimages849056020-scaled-1.webp?fit=1536%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1kAm","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":272037,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=272037","url_meta":{"origin":317462,"position":0},"title":"Millions of Tonnes of Waste Threaten Environment as Solar Panels Near End of Life","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/08\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Millions of solar panels are reaching the end of their lifespan, but with no adequate recycling infrastructure in place to deal with them, an environmental disaster is looming.\u00a0This is Money\u00a0has more\u00a0on the potential polluting consequences of solar energy.","rel":"","context":"In \"Environmental Disaster\"","block_context":{"text":"Environmental Disaster","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=environmental-disaster"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0GettyImages-856896122-1525465460.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0GettyImages-856896122-1525465460.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0GettyImages-856896122-1525465460.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0GettyImages-856896122-1525465460.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/0GettyImages-856896122-1525465460.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":242763,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=242763","url_meta":{"origin":317462,"position":1},"title":"\u201aRenewables\u2018 Reality Check: Exposing Filthy Truth About Our Wind &#038; 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It provides a straightforward way to compare the direct costs of different technologies, such as capital, operations, maintenance, and fuel. 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