Would you be shocked to learn that making solar panels generates more toxic waste than nuclear power?
I was, and I've been somewhat aware of the pollution generated.
But 300 times as much?!?!?!
Unglaubich!
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Unforuntately making solar cells is a very dirty process using toxic caustic chemicals and heavy metals. It takes many, many years for a solar cell to pay back it's "carbon debt" compared to electricity generated by coal. Even a windmill has the same problem of requiring years of operation to pay back the polution it costs to build, but solar cells are much worse. 300 times suprises even me, but I knew it was pretty bad. It is one of the unfortunate things about the greenie beanies... In their zeal for "green power", they often unknowingly but sometimes even willfully disregard the realities that their plans may actually do more harm to the environment than good.
ReplyDeleteGreenies get really butt-hurt when it is revealed to them that hybrids and even worse pure electric cars actually cause more polution than even their most hated traditional vehicles. But the truth is, in terms of total long term (lifetime of the vehicle) polution of all sources (air, water, land), a Hummer actually produces less than a Prius. And to tie that back to solar panels... the problem with electric vehicles is that the batteries required to make them work require toxic chemicals and heavy metals (again)... They are dirty to make, and dirty to recycle. The same problem also applies to solar cells. Because of nighttime and weather conditions, solar generally must be coupled with battery storage to be useful, otherwise it has to be supplemented by other power sources (and often it still does) or also a lot of the generated power goes to waste if not all is used during prime sunlight conditions. Those batteries... same problems with being dirty. And now that article also brings up disposing of worn out or broken solar cells (hail and other weather conditions can unfortunately break a lot of solar cells before they even break even on their carbon debt)...