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California went big on rooftop solar. Now that's a problem for landfills
Yahoo ^ | July 14, 2022 | Rachel Kisela

Posted on 07/20/2022 8:40:35 PM PDT by george76

California .. the bill is coming due.

...

no comprehensive plan to dispose of them. Now, panels purchased under those programs are nearing the end of their typical 25-to-30-year life cycle.

Many are already winding up in .. contaminate groundwater with toxic heavy metals such as lead, selenium and cadmium.

Sam Vanderhoof, a solar industry expert and chief executive of Recycle PV Solar, says that only 1 in 10 panels are actually recycled

...

The looming challenge over how to handle truckloads of waste...

“The industry is supposed to be green,” Vanderhoof said. “But in reality, it’s all about the money.”

...

the industry’s “capacity is woefully unprepared for the deluge of waste

...

It’s not just a problem in California but also nationwide.

...

there will be an increase in the solar panels entering the waste stream

...

Recycling solar panels isn’t a simple process.

...

Only about $2 to $4 worth of materials are recovered from each panel.

...

That skews the economic incentives against recycling. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimated that it costs roughly $20 to $30 to recycle a panel versus $1 to $2 to send it to a landfill.

...

The department expects the number of installed solar panels in the next decade to exceed hundreds of millions in California alone, and that recycling will become even more crucial as cheaper panels with shorter life spans become more popular.

A lack of consumer awareness about the toxicity of materials in some panels and how to dispose of them is part of the problem

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California; US: Colorado; US: Hawaii
KEYWORDS: california; climatechange; energy; globalwarming; green; greenenergy; greenscam; landfills; notsogreen; pollution; recycling; scam; solar; solarpanels; waste; windmill; windmilllandfills
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1 posted on 07/20/2022 8:40:35 PM PDT by george76
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To: george76

Is it mostly early inefficient panels that are now obsolete?


2 posted on 07/20/2022 8:42:43 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: george76

Heheheheh.

Isn’t “planned obsolescence” a b!tch?


3 posted on 07/20/2022 8:42:52 PM PDT by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
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To: george76

Libtards always make messes for others to deal with 🤪


4 posted on 07/20/2022 8:43:55 PM PDT by NWFree (Somebody has to say it)
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Solar panels have only been the thing for homes for the last
15 years or so. So how are we running into 25 to 30 year
problems at this point?

These hysterical articles are getting tiresome.


5 posted on 07/20/2022 8:47:17 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (I pledge allegiance the flag of the U S of A, and to the REPUBLIC for which stands.)
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To: george76

Green energy.


6 posted on 07/20/2022 8:48:16 PM PDT by Ken H (Trump /DeSantis)
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To: george76

The “windmill” landfills are even worse. They’re taking up a lot of real estate. They needs to ship that crap back to Canada and have them recycle it.


7 posted on 07/20/2022 8:48:23 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (First, they stole our elections. Then, they stole our country.)
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To: george76

Boy, it seems that the best way to screw up the planet is to go green.


8 posted on 07/20/2022 8:49:53 PM PDT by Lazamataz (The firearms I own today, are the firearms I will die with. How I die will be up to them.)
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To: george76

Perhaps they could be used as wall panels for homeless shelters. Unless, of course, it is better to spend $600,000 for every one of those shelters.


9 posted on 07/20/2022 8:53:06 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (Apoplectic is where we want them)
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To: DannyTN

Natural gas: a megawatt- hour of electricity costs about $20. .. wind or solar electricity costs about $80 a megawatt-hour.. batteries are very costly for moving electricity.. $270 per megawatt-hour..

$270 includes the cost of replacing the battery every five years. The batteries have to be air-conditioned and .. further comments thru the thread.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3772445/posts


10 posted on 07/20/2022 8:59:06 PM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: Attention Surplus Disorder

“Perhaps they could be used as wall panels for homeless shelters.”


When garage-door openers became popular in SoCal, lots of old garage doors ended up as walls and roofs of shanties in Tijuana.

But old windmill blades can’t be used for much of anything useful.


11 posted on 07/20/2022 8:59:16 PM PDT by hanamizu
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To: DoughtyOne

3.2 megawatts of PV solar retired in 2013 (installed in 1984)(at the former Rancho Seco nuclear plant).

https://www.transmissionhub.com/articles/2016/10/smud-powers-up-11-mw-solar-plant-at-rancho-seco.html


12 posted on 07/20/2022 9:00:16 PM PDT by Drago
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To: george76

It seems that EVERYTHING THEY TOUCH TURNS TO “MERDE.”

I just hope that the masses begin to see what the LEFT has in store for us.


13 posted on 07/20/2022 9:00:36 PM PDT by Maris Crane
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To: george76
“The industry is supposed to be green,” Vanderhoof said. “But in reality, it’s all about the money.”

Can you actually say that out loud in public. Next someone will say Algore was on the grift too.

14 posted on 07/20/2022 9:05:02 PM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: george76

I’d like to laugh, but it ain’t funny.


15 posted on 07/20/2022 9:07:56 PM PDT by MileHi ((Liberalism is an ideology of parasites, hypocrites, grievance mongers, victims, and control freaks.)
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To: george76
“But 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.”

The same is true with wind. Imagine tens of millions of obsolete wind turbines in 20 or 30 years, the blades removed, and the towers abandoned in place blighting the landscape as far as the eye can see. The blades cannot be recycled are and buried. It really irks me that you cannot open a surface coal mine without posting a huge reclamation bond to restore the site to it's former virgin condition before mining, yet you can bury hundreds of tons of concrete and steel for each windmill and not pay a dime to restore the site when they wear out.

Orben said the economics of the process don’t make a compelling case for recycling. Only about $2 to $4 worth of materials are recovered from each panel. The majority of processing costs are tied to labor, and Orben said even recycling panels at scale would not be more economical.

So you have nothing left of value when they are worn out. These days, you cannot buy a car battery, paint, engine oil, or tires without paying a "disposal fee" that is supposed to deal with the waste at the end of the products' economic lifetime. Why aren't such fees applied to these highly toxic solar panels?

Don't answer. That's a rhetorical question. We all know the answer.

16 posted on 07/20/2022 9:08:09 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“...see whether we in our day and generation may not perform something worthy to be remembered.”)
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To: DoughtyOne
>>25 to 30 year problems at this point?

Used Car Salesmen marketing.

17 posted on 07/20/2022 9:10:19 PM PDT by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's for sure.)
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To: george76

Uh oh. This is a Yahoo article. That, of course, means a far left bent and they are saying there is a problem with solar waste? Not good. Not good at all. That means the problem is much worse than they are reporting.


18 posted on 07/20/2022 9:10:58 PM PDT by willk (Local news media. Just as dangerous as national media.)
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To: Lazamataz

(Boy, it seems that the best way to screw up the planet is to go green.)

It’s their brilliant plans in action!


19 posted on 07/20/2022 9:25:24 PM PDT by SaveFerris (The Lord, The Christ and The Messiah: Jesus Christ of Nazareth - http://www.BiblicalJesusChrist.Com/)
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To: Drago

That must have cost a fortune in the day.k

Thanks for the mention.


20 posted on 07/20/2022 9:25:54 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (I pledge allegiance the flag of the U S of A, and to the REPUBLIC for which stands.)
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