RobH_Perseverance72

Think Solar panels are "Green"? think again. Making solar panels requires toxic chemicals, huge amounts of energy and water, and creates toxic waste. The common types (mono- and poly-crystalline panels) need extremely high heat at every stage of production. For example, temperatures of 2,700°F to 3,600°F are required just to turn sand-like silicon dioxide into usable silicon. Up to half of that silicon is then wasted when the thin wafers are cut. For every 1 megawatt of solar panels produced: About 1.4 tons of toxic chemicals are used (including hydrochloric acid, sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and hydrogen fluoride). Nearly 2,900 tons of water are needed. 8.6 tons of pollution are released—most of it from powerful greenhouse gases (SF₆, NF₃, and C₂F₆) that trap heat thousands of times more effectively than carbon dioxide. Other dangerous waste includes toxic gases like trichlorosilane and silicon tetrachloride, plus harmful dust from the cutting process. The thinner “amorphous” or thin-film solar panels are made with cadmium, a chemical known to cause cancer and damage DNA. By the end of 2016 the world already had about 250,000 tonnes of discarded solar panels. That was just 0.5 % of all electronic waste produced that year. The International Renewable Energy Agency estimates that by 2050 we could be throwing away 6 million tonnes of solar panels every single year, adding up to a total of 78 million tonnes. At that point dead solar panels could make up 10 % of all electronic waste, and the total amount of worn-out panels could be larger than all the electronic waste the world produced in 2018. Recycling is often presented as the easy fix, but it isn’t. It still uses large amounts of energy, water and other resources, and workers have to handle toxic materials that eventually need to be disposed of. Right now only two commercial recycling methods exist for solar panels, and there are just a handful of facilities that can do the job anywhere in the world. #GreenEnergy