Yes there is waste, it's not all sunshine and rain. There's also recycling.
What you need to wake up to is the environmental damage is much smaller from panels than it is from fossil fuels.
See
Hidden Costs of Fossil Fuels, oil spills, polluted groundwater, leaky gas pipes, land use and contamination from mining, railway spills, air pollution, radioactivity, and yes... even contributing to global warming. Those aren't things easily recycled or fixed.
This article calls for the mandatory recycling of solar panels, which I 100% agree with.
This might interest you too:
...solar panels contain toxic materials like lead that can leach out as they break down, landfilling also creates new environmental hazards.
You know where the lead is in a solar panel, right? It's mostly in the glass. So, it's the same issue as any window - it's not just a solar panels are introducing some new problem. How recyclable is that glass you ask... ~100%.
How dangerous is that lead in the glass?
if water is put into a 24% lead crystal glass it may take 10 years for enough lead to leach for it to be detectable.
Something with vinegar in it could reveal detectable levels in 20 minutes.
Not that panels are 24% leaded.... but that's why folks worry about glass in a landfill... it leaches out in acidic fluids.
Where does the acid come from? Acid Rain.
Where does the acid rain come from, oh right... fossil fuels. Get rid of fossil fuels and landfills around the world become safer.
You really need to read these and not just the headline.
They say it's a problem upcoming in
2035 and the
headache is IF it ends up in landfills. So, another article calling for panels to be recycled rather than put into landfills.
@svetz a lot of you entire argument chain depends on a whole bunch of "maybes" in the future
You got that backwards dude... your logic chain is from PR media trying to get you to vote a particular way and your proofs are from articles you didn't even read through and typically point out the opposite of what you're saying.
I try to base my logic on observable facts and math that use current tech and sometimes include near-term tech. I'm not perfect and hope to hell that if I'm wrong someone points it out; but preferably with accurate information they actually read and understood from a trustworthy source or demonstratable math.
... before we start ...replacing traditional energy with unicorn farts... it is a probably a good idea to have a solid, proven method.
Absolutely agree. I just think we also need to look at the dangers and costs of the existing methods too. But that's what the studies and LCOEs are all about, proving how feasible it is, what we need to do to succeed, and understanding the costs. What the worldwide consensus is that we need to get off fossil fuels ASAP, that solar and wind do work, and that they do enormously less harm overall. That's why every nation on Earth (except Libia and a couple of other smaller countries) is working towards being net-neutral.
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