Posted on 07/20/2022 8:40:35 PM PDT by george76
Yep. Most people do not realize that solar panels wear out and that they are literally toxic waste once they do.
Nor do most realize all the energy that has to be put into creating them in the first place.
They are not really “green”.
They’re like the Jacobins during the French Revolution.
Throw out all the wisdom and proven systems that came before then insist things be done according to how you think it should work. A lot of that wisdom that came before is the result of evolution as people learned through trial and error what worked and what didn’t, but hey, you’re so much smarter than anybody who came before you so you know best. What could go wrong?
I’m sure the powers that be will pass a tax on the folks in California and that will take care of the issue.
Latin America is sending their trash up here. Let’s reciprocate by shipping all our “green” trash down there.
The owners of the solar panels need to be charged for the cost of safely disposing of them. They need to bear the burden of their actions. The rest of us shouldn’t have to live with a poisoned environment because of their selfishness.
But hey, banning plastic straws will save the planet, so...
“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?”
Because they don’t last that long, at least in the heat of much of California where their adhesives vaporize rather quickly.
But saying such would not play well to people deciding on whether to buy panels, so they keep the longer numbers in the article and hope people don’t notice.
“Dems don’t get it. Unexpected consequences get them every time because they are too stupid to consider the long term consequences of their actions.”
Oh, trust me, they DO get it. It’s our side, particularly in the political class, who keep thinking that they don’t get it - they use the term “our friends across the aisle”.
The Dems privately LAUGH when our side calls them misguided, because they know that the only way to stop their evil intentions is to call them out on it.
...and we don’t. At least the people who can stop them don’t.
Recycling old solar panels?
Use minimum security prison inmates for labor. Build the new prison/recycling facility in a logical location for transport of the decommissioned solar panels.
Don’t forget, the panels are made in countries that have almost no environmental regulations or care. So we are smugly saying “we are green” in the USA when we just moved the production pollution to other poorer countries.
Dirty at the front end, dirty at the back end, and require huge taxpayer and ratepayer subsidies from here to Kingdom Come. What’s not to like?
Dems are not engineers.
Dems are not systems analysts.
Dems believe they can will something into existence by magical thinking.
Biden seems to be much in favor of the “green energy” so maybe we could ship these “recyclables” to Delaware. Wonder ing how long before the whole state could be a landfill area?
“Vanderhoof said. “But in reality, it’s all about the money.”
Duh.
L
Yes and no. Yes, the ones from 20 years ago (that are being thrown away today) are obsolete by today's standards. But the new ones have the same problem of being toxic and too expensive to recycle. Ostensibly the newer ones are made to be easier to recycle, and there are a few companies getting wasteful grant money to research the problem of recycling them. But I'll believe it when I see it.
I say that as someone with many solar panels and I like them.
In San Francisco, these days, PG&E charges individual households 33c per kWh.
Your numbers are off by a factor of 100. Your prices 0.1, 0.2 are $/kWh
1. Tesla batteries are like anything else with the Tesla brand name: Too Expensive Still Liberals Adore. My 5.14kWh batteries are $1,500 each with 19-year warranties guaranteed to slowly degrade and still be storing 50% as well in the final year. Why? Because they're not Tesla.
2. My system cost $33K with 32 panels putting out 10kW and storing 30kWh in battery storage. It'll pay for itself on about the 10th year (I'm actually in the middle of expanding it and I got an EV, but I'll go with the numbers as though I'm using just the original system because that's more practical than the uber large system I'm expanding it to.) That $33K is before the 26% tax credit. Last year it produced 58.5% of all the power I consumed in my two-story now all-electric house even with all the A/C I run in Alabama.
3. My 10-year pay itself calculation isn't based at all on getting money from the power utility. I don't sell power to the grid because to do so would make me have to pay a large monthly fee. (Alabama doesn't do "net metering".) But I am predicting a 3% inflation rate in power rates per year. So even with my solar system degrading a little each year (and thus saving me less power), it's more than offset by the power rates rising (i.e. if it saves only 57.9% of my kWh this year it still saves me more than saving 58.5% last year because this year's power rates are higher).
4. Some of you are funny thinking power rates are only 10 cents per kWh. Yeah, I know that's what the power utility states, including in Alabama (10.6 cents). But the reality is way more after they add in riders and state tax. On my last power bill it was 13.6 cents per kWh (you see that nowhere on the bill, if you want to know it you have to calculate it yourself). That means it's 28% more than their stated rate. Once I realized that, and once I took into account an inflation rate of 3% (we wish), that's when my math synapses decided to look into going solar.
5. About starting the A/C. It depends. Part of my project involved replacing both my gas furnace and old A/C unit with a variable speed heat pump. My inverter can start that but couldn't start the old A/C unit. So now my heat pump is on the critical load electrical panel (which is powered by my solar system even if the grid goes down and my inverter goes into emergency power mode, assuming I have power from solar and/or batteries). Now, my system isn't powerful enough to go off-grid and stay off-grid, which I think was the context of powering the A/C. (Look, it's a two-story house. Even after the upgrade I predict having 85% to 95% of all power "free" from solar averaged across the year, not 100%.) But it's an example of how even just one inverter can do the surge power needed to start a large A/C unit if it's one that can start slow (like variable speed heat pumps do). I bet once I have two inverters working in parallel I could have started my old A/C unit in off-grid mode.
LOL!
Many are already winding up in .. contaminate groundwater with toxic heavy metals such as lead, selenium and cadmium.
Save the climate destroy the soil and water a hell of a plan huh Moe.
Now there is an excellent and informative post. Thanks.
Thanks P.O.E. I appreciate the mention.
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