Public Health Watch: Solar Pollution
Are you concerned about pollution and toxic waste? This is certainly an issue in Making America Healthy Again.
Promoters of solar and wind “farms” for the generation of electricity constantly refer to them as “clean” and “renewable.” Burning coal releases particulate matter (soot), sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide (blamed for acid rain), and more radioactive emissions than a nuclear power plant. Sunshine and wind leave no residual. But as the photo shows, the installations that utilize them generate mountains of waste.
The life expectancy of solar panels is about 25 years—or until there’s a hailstorm or hurricane. At that point, a farmer may have his formerly productive fields covered with broken panels—and may have to fend for himself to have them removed. End-of-life planning is usually neglected. Recycling is difficult and uneconomic. There are tiny amounts of silver and copper encased in glass sandwiches. Most will end up in landfills, where toxic elements will eventually leach out and contaminate the water table.
It is estimated that the U.S. would be producing roughly 2 million metric tons of solar waste per year by 2043, but other studies have a much higher figure. The Institute for Energy Research puts the potential mountain even higher, pointing to studies estimating that the 2050 figure will be 78 million tons.
Wind turbines have their own set of end-of-life problems. Blades on offshore turbines today can be as long as a football field. “These offshore things are not renewable and not clean—it takes boat loads of equipment out to the sites to build and maintain them, and it will take boat loads to bring it all back,” said Robin Shaffer of Protect Our Coast NJ.
To date, no single regulatory framework has been developed for renewable energy project end-of-life planning, leaving a patchwork of federal, state, and local policies and regulations.
Funds to cover decommissioning need to be put in escrow at the beginning of the project, but government policies have been shaped around climate activism.
“It’s an environmental disaster we’re looking at,” said Jason Isaac, founder and CEO of the American Energy Institute.
The entire life cycle of methods of energy generation needs to be objectively evaluated.
Additional Information:
- Toxic waste from solar panels, Forbes, May 23, 2018
- Energy Risk Assessment by Herbert Inhaber
- Storage requirements for renewable energy
See more here aapsonline.org
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VOWG
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Solar panels and wind turbines start as garbage and turn into real garbage quite quickly. Toxic and not reusable.
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VOWG
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The word renewable does not apply in the way “they” intend. Manufacturing processes require massive energy inputs in the form of coal, oil and gas. That folks is an undeniable truth.
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