THE DARK SIDE OF SOLAR POWER

Everybody loves solar power, right? It's nice, clean, renewable energy that's available pretty much everywhere the sun shines. If only the panels weren't so expensive. Even better, solar is now the cheapest form of electricity for companies to build, according to the International Energy Agency. But solar isn't all apples and sunshine — there's a dark side you might not know about. Manufacturing solar panels is a dirty process from start to finish. Mining quartz for silicon causes the lung disease silicosis, and the production of solar cells uses a lot of energy, water, and toxic chemicals.

The other issue is that solar cells have a guanteed life expectancy of about 25 years, with average efficiency losses of 0.5% per year. If replacement begins after 25 years, time is running out for all the panels that were installed during the early 2000s boom. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IREA) projects that by 2050, we'll be looking at 78 million metric tons of bulky e-waste. The IREA also believe that we'll be generating six million metric tons of new solar e-waste every year by then, too. Unfortunately, there are hardly any measures in place to recycle solar panels, at least in the US.

How are solar panels made, anyway? And why is it so hard to recycle them? Let's shed some light on the subject.

HarveyH55 wrote:
Guessing you didn't read the article... All the hardcore 'green' people, who jumped in on solar early, have been saving less on their electric bill every year, and it's cumulative. The 26 year rating, is best case, under ideal conditions. Some of the materials can be recovered, but the silicon cells, are useless. Takes a whole lot of energy to manufacture solar panels, and quite a bit to recover, and reuse the glass and frame. lot of toxic chemicals as byproducts. Might be renewable, but not really cheap, or 'green', as advertised.

HarveyH55 wrote:
I remember the great gas shortage in he 70s, and solar power was going to be the technology of the future. 50 years later, it hasn't really improved, just bigger, cheaper, greater marketing hype. Still the same people on the fringe, the off-grid folks, who make the change by choice. The vast majority, are being forced into it, or conned into it. Solar never evolved into a better energy source, which most people would gladly, eagerly, switch over to. Vastly inferior to most anything else available, people just settle for less, out of the fear mongering, and belief it's cleaner, a planet saver. The article, although I'm sure that it wasn't the intent. Illustrates that it's not even the clean, green solution, it's being marketed.

keepit wrote: The gas shortages of the 70's were caused by opec disrupting oil supplies. Look it up using google.

IBdaMann wrote:

keepit wrote: The gas shortages of the 70's were caused by opec disrupting oil supplies. Look it up using google.

How about I just call it up from memory?

Yes, ... it turns out that there was no crisis. We brought all those problems onto ourselves.

.

keepit wrote:
The gas shortages of the 70's were caused by opec disrupting oil supplies. Look it up using google.

keepit wrote:
The gas shortages of the 70's were caused by opec disrupting oil supplies. Look it up using google.

keepit wrote:
One of the 6 rules of propaganda is to blame the predecessor. The point is don't use propaganda.

Xadoman wrote:
People go grazy if they get something for free. Solar energy appears free energy. I once had some very small wind turbine made of an alternator of the car. I bought it from some guy who had a drinking problem. My uncle put it up and got his little light bulb glowing. He was so happy playing with it. Once there was a heavy wind and the alternator fell down , the wanes got quite badly damaged. I put the whole package on the sale and at the same evening some very enthusiastic guy called and eventually bought the thing. I delivered it to him and he payed a good price for it. I was amazed how easily I got rid of this junk.

CharlieScott wrote:

Xadoman wrote:
People go grazy if they get something for free. Solar energy appears free energy. I once had some very small wind turbine made of an alternator of the car. I bought it from some guy who had a drinking problem. My uncle put it up and got his little light bulb glowing. He was so happy playing with it. Once there was a heavy wind and the alternator fell down , the wanes got quite badly damaged. I put the whole package on the sale and at the same evening some very enthusiastic guy called and eventually bought the thing. I delivered it to him and he payed a good price for it. I was amazed how easily I got rid of this junk.

I agree with you. They advertise it as free, but they don't talk about the high cost of setting it up. First one has to buy the panels, which used to be very expensive. Now, thanks to China, they come much cheaper. Then one needs to buy the batteries, which are much more expensive than the panels. One also has to watch the weather through proper apps like climacell or aeris. By the time one gets everything set up, something blows, so they have to repair or replace it. Where is the free??

CharlieScott wrote:

Xadoman wrote:
People go grazy if they get something for free. Solar energy appears free energy. I once had some very small wind turbine made of an alternator of the car. I bought it from some guy who had a drinking problem. My uncle put it up and got his little light bulb glowing. He was so happy playing with it. Once there was a heavy wind and the alternator fell down , the wanes got quite badly damaged. I put the whole package on the sale and at the same evening some very enthusiastic guy called and eventually bought the thing. I delivered it to him and he payed a good price for it. I was amazed how easily I got rid of this junk.

I agree with you. They advertise it as free, but they don't talk about the high cost of setting it up. First one has to buy the panels, which used to be very expensive. Now, thanks to China, they come much cheaper. Then one needs to buy the batteries, which are much more expensive than the panels. One also has to watch the weather through proper apps like climacell or aeris. By the time one gets everything set up, something blows, so they have to repair or replace it. Where is the free??

HarveyH55 wrote:

CharlieScott wrote:

Xadoman wrote:
People go grazy if they get something for free. Solar energy appears free energy. I once had some very small wind turbine made of an alternator of the car. I bought it from some guy who had a drinking problem. My uncle put it up and got his little light bulb glowing. He was so happy playing with it. Once there was a heavy wind and the alternator fell down , the wanes got quite badly damaged. I put the whole package on the sale and at the same evening some very enthusiastic guy called and eventually bought the thing. I delivered it to him and he payed a good price for it. I was amazed how easily I got rid of this junk.

I agree with you. They advertise it as free, but they don't talk about the high cost of setting it up. First one has to buy the panels, which used to be very expensive. Now, thanks to China, they come much cheaper. Then one needs to buy the batteries, which are much more expensive than the panels. One also has to watch the weather through proper apps like climacell or aeris. By the time one gets everything set up, something blows, so they have to repair or replace it. Where is the free??

The panels still work out to be expensive, since most all are installed in a fixed mounting. The sun doesn't travel exactly the same path across the sky, everyday, the entire year. You have to buy nearly twice as many panels, to ensure you get enough power to keep your battery fully charged, daily, the whole year. Mostly, they were only cheap, while the Obama subsidies lasted.

Lead-acid batteries don't last long, if you don't keep the charged. Even the deep cycle batteries need to be kept charged. We kill a lot of batteries at work, every year, because many never get a full charge very often. Some of it is that they are bad batteries (rebuilt), but mostly, we run more power equipment, than we have batteries on the chargers. Gets worse, every battery that fails, since we only buy batteries once a year, or we start losing production.