Why renewables can't save the planet., page-228

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19/01/20

16:09

Post #: 42459201
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Originally posted by Quamera: ↑

I am not to sure why people are so worried about recycling solar panels, they are mostly glass usually with an aluminium frame. Just because the manufacturing process uses nasty stuff for etching doesn't mean any of it is left in the final product, if it was the panels would fail before installation from internal corrosion. The minuscule amount of lead would be from solder and due to the danger of toxic fumes during manufacturing lead free solder has been used for decades in the western world. If the Chinese still used leaded solder then a single car battery would have more lead than thousands of solar panels anyway.

Circuit tracks and leads for consumer grade panels are copper, the same as the majority of electronic circuit boards, surely any recycler would be able separate glass from copper, lead, chromium and any other metals that maybe present. Similarly the plastics and adhesives in a solar panel would be relatively simple to separate out.

Only 5% of panels use Cadmium telluride, although they are more efficient than cells made from crystalline silicon they are also more expensive. If Cadmium telluride is a problem at the end of life then ask the manufacturer for a recycling deposit at the start of life, maybe they will find another process although CdTe PV has the smallest carbon footprint of all the current panel manufacturing technologies.

Recycling Solar Panels maybe a problem in the future but it will be no different to the huge volumes of plastic, glass, metal, electronic and organic wastes that we already have to deal with.

Interestingly I put 4 x 40W "BP Solar" panels on a Southern Cross helical rotor pump in 1981 (yes big oil already knew what the future held). That pump is still operating, I have replaced the bearings and brushes in the motor, changed the drive belt a few times and the MPPT has had some repairs over the years but the panels are still producing without any obvious reduction in power. So there is nearly 40 years (in a dry, non salty environment) but I don't know if modern panels will do that.

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So you just ignore the rare earth component which may be small but critical. DYOR.
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