This discussion is locked.
You cannot post a reply to this discussion. If you have a question start a new discussion

How 'Green' are solar panels?

I wonder if we'll eventually see the same problem with a growing number of expired electric car batteries too?

Growing number of Solar panels going to landfill due to cost of 'recycling'.

Millions of solar panels in California risk being dumped on landfill sites as they reach the end of their life cycles.

Over the past two decades, more than 1.3 million homeowners and builders took advantage of state incentives to install the panels on their rooftops.

However, they have a lifespan of 25-30 years and defunct ones are starting to pile up in dumps, raising fears they will contaminate groundwater with toxic metals such as lead, selenium and cadmium.

Sam Vanderhoof, a solar industry expert and chief executive of Recycle PV Solar, told the Los Angeles Times it estimated only one in ten panels were recycled because the process is expensive and time-consuming.

It costs about $20 to $30 to recycle a panel compared with $1 to $2 to send it to a landfill, according to figures from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “The industry is supposed to be green,” Vanderhoof said. “But in reality, it’s all about the money.”

California, with abundant all-year sunshine, was a pioneer in the adoption of solar power. In 2006 it introduced the California Solar Initiative which granted $3.3 billion in subsidies for installing panels on rooftops.

While the scheme was considered a success, officials are now grappling with how to safely dispose of the panels.

Serasu Duran, assistant professor at the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business in Canada, warned in an academic paper last year that the industry was “woefully unprepared for the deluge of waste that is likely to come”.

The issue is not limited to California — a solar panel was installed every 60 seconds last year in the US, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Duran told the LA Times: “While all the focus has been on building this renewable capacity, not much consideration has been put on the end of life of these technologies.”

Parents
  • Solar panels in the UK are a complete and utter non sense. Northern hemisphere does not give a good enough projection of the sun and in winter is a waste of time. If not for the fact that we pay the green levy these things would.be shelved.

    Green Madness

  • My solar panels are doing fine at the moment, and have generated 35.3MWh since they were installed.

    Thanks to a battery in the loft, I am running on solar power when writing this post at 10:30pm.  My electricity usage from the grid during the spring and summer averages less than 1kWh per day.

    You can pay your exhorbitant electricity bills (which will be going up again in October).  I will stick with my "nonsense" solar panels, which should last at least another 10 years.


    The economics of solar are now changing as the price of electricity keeps rising.  The break-even point of buying new solar, with no subsidies whatsoever from the government, can be less than 10 years.  That's despite the pitifully low price that electricity companies pay for exported electricity.

  • Sounds like you had to wait for a crisis for your so called green energy to be viable. Crisis being 20 years of poor government planning.

    Fortunately for me I fixed at 17p per kwhr till july 2023 which means I'm not paying so much for your panels.

  • Except... there is no government subsidy for large scale PV any more.

    And yet 12-18 months ago - yes, before the current energy crisis kicked off - the UK solar industry was gearing up to start building big stuff again. This time, projects are competing with conventional generation either directly to the market or by signing energy procurement contracts with large consumers (industry, retail etc) who find solar energy somewhat cheaper than other sources, even if they have to buy any shortfall from the grid.

    For sure the government is honouring its historic commitments to the first movers who helped generate the market and lower the price for the rest of us.

Reply
  • Except... there is no government subsidy for large scale PV any more.

    And yet 12-18 months ago - yes, before the current energy crisis kicked off - the UK solar industry was gearing up to start building big stuff again. This time, projects are competing with conventional generation either directly to the market or by signing energy procurement contracts with large consumers (industry, retail etc) who find solar energy somewhat cheaper than other sources, even if they have to buy any shortfall from the grid.

    For sure the government is honouring its historic commitments to the first movers who helped generate the market and lower the price for the rest of us.

Children
No Data