Joe Biden Pledges to Make Solar Panels More Environmentally Toxic – Watts Up With That? Guest essay by Eric Worrall h/t ResourceGuy; If you thought Arsenic doped Silicon or Gallium Arsenide on your roof was bad, how about solar cells made of organic Lead compounds, or Cadmium Telluride?
Biden’s quest for cheaper solar is exploring some truly terrifying photovoltaic innovations. U.S. pledges to slash solar energy costs by 60% in a decadeFri March 26, 2021March 25 (Reuters) – The Biden administration on Thursday set a goal to cut the cost of solar energy by 60% over the next decade as part of an ambitious plan to decarbonize the United States’ power sector by 2035.The U.S. Department of Energy said the goal accelerates its previous utility-scale solar cost target by five years. Rechargeable batteries used to contain Cadmium, it was discontinued because Cadmium is horribly toxic. less than half a gram of Cadmium in your system will really mess up your day. Tellurium is unpleasant, though it does not seem as toxic as Cadmium. From Wikipedia; 4.6 20 votes. World’s largest solar farm could cause explosion on scale of small nuclear bomb, residents complain. By Paul Homewood h/t Philip Bratby The dead tree press has finally caught up with the story I ran in March: Building the world’s largest solar farm in a picturesque Kent village could cause an explosion on the scale of a small nuclear bomb, residents have complained.
Developers want to erect up to one million solar panels the height of a double-decker bus on 900 acres of farmland, the equivalent of 600 football pitches, at Cleve Hill near Faversham at a cost of £450m. They would have the capacity to power more than 90,000 homes using energy from what would be the biggest battery storage facility in the world – and three times bigger than the lithium-ion battery built by Elon Musk, the Tesla tycoon, in South Australia. But thousands of campaigners say the battery facility, which would cover 25 acres, is unsafe and their idyllic village would be decimated if there was a battery fire which could not be controlled.
Like this: Like Loading... UK’s Biggest Solar Farm Poses Grave Risk To Public Health. Britain’s largest solar farm is currently wending its way through the planning system.
Not only will it be the biggest at 350MW and 890 acres, but crucially it will include battery storage of 700 MWh. And it is the prospect of this that is frightening local residents, as this open letter from the local doctor explains: Newton Place Surgery on the Health Issues arising from Cleve HillOpen letter to The Rt Hon Alok Sharma MP, Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Society, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H OET A signed paper copy has been sentProposal to build a 350MW Solar Power Station with 700MWh Battery Energy Storage System at Cleve Hill, Graveney, KentDear Secretary of StateI am the Senior Partner in the largest GP practice in Faversham, Kent .
Solar Waste Disposal and Recycling. Solar Power Plants and Bird Deaths. Solar Power Can Increase Air Pollution - Massive East Coast solar project generates fury from neighbors. A Potent Greenhouse Gas Used to Make Solar Panels Is on the Rise - Seeker. US emissions of a greenhouse gas thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide have expanded tenfold over the past two-and-a-half decades, according to fresh government data.
And one reason — wait for it — is America's increasing reliance on solar power. The gas, nitrogen trifluoride, or NF3, is a key chemical agent used to manufacture certain types of photovoltaic cells for solar panels, as well as semiconductors and LCD flat screens. NF3 is produced in minuscule quantities compared to carbon dioxide and now adds only a wafer-thin margin to America's total greenhouse gas emissions, while carbon dioxide makes up 82 percent and methane nearly another 10 percent. But researchers warn NF3 is dangerous due to its devilish efficiency in trapping energy, and long atmospheric lifespan of up to 740 years.
NF3 is thought to be 17,200 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, according to the U.N. "By itself, NF3 is not going to create a climate problem," said Dr. Yet Dr. New Research: Solar Panels Less Green Than You Think. More than a billion solar panels have been installed around the world but they may so far have failed to reduce overall emissions, a study has found.
Panel production is so energy intensive that the global solar industry could still be paying off its “carbon debt”. Researchers looked at the full lifecycle of solar panels, including the emissions resulting from their production and the renewable electricity they produce. They found that the panels installed since the mid-1970s were likely to be producing a net reduction in emissions by 2011 — but that in the worst-case scenario, they might not do so until 2018. Solar Energy Isn’t Always as Green as You Think - IEEE Spectrum. Solar panels glimmering in the sun are an icon of all that is green.
But while generating electricity through photovoltaics is indeed better for the environment than burning fossil fuels, several incidents have linked the manufacture of these shining symbols of environmental virtue to a trail of chemical pollution. And it turns out that the time it takes to compensate for the energy used and the greenhouse gases emitted in photovoltaic panel production varies substantially by technology and geography.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that the industry could readily eliminate many of the damaging side effects that do exist. Indeed, pressure for it to do so is mounting, in part because, since 2008, photovoltaics manufacturing has moved from Europe, Japan, and the United States to China, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Taiwan; today nearly half the world’s photovoltaics are manufactured in China. Most manufacturers recycle this waste to make more polysilicon.