By Charles Tyrrell
Data updataed June 2022
The sun might produce more power in a single hour than the entire world consumes in a year but trapping, using and storing energy from the sun is not clean, not green and not reliable. Climate change fanatics and renewable energy enthusiasts are hiding the enormous negative impact solar energy has on the environment, vegetation and wildlife.
If we produced a lot of energy from the sun, it's negative impact might be worth ignoring. But we don't. For example, it takes 161 megawatts of electricity to light up Times Square in New York City. With today's technology it would be necessary to cover 35% of Manhatten Island with solar panels just to light up that famous intersection of Broadway and 7th Avenue.
Solar farms are high maintenance and must be entirely replaced every 20-25 years or be abandoned. Solar panels can be damaged by lightening, hailstorms, tornados, hurricanes and earthquakes. Every single solar panel contains dangerous lead and poisonious cadmium so solar panels cannot be discarded in our landfills. When panels are cracked or broken, rainwater can wash lead and cadmium out of the panels and into the soil where it can leach into water supplies.
Capacity Factor:
Topaz and Desert Sunlight Solar Farms are located in California; Topaz in Carizo Plains and Desert Sunlight in the Mojave Desert. Topaz Solar Farm has 9 million photovoltaic (PV) solar panels and Desert Sunlight has 8.8 million cadmium telluride panels. They are tied for second place among the largest solar plants, each having an installed capacity of 550 megawatts. But the amount of sunlight, the temperature, the wind and demand are all variables that affect their installed capacity giving them both capacity factors of under 28%.
Capacity factor measures how much electricity a power source generates over a measured period of time. With a capacity factor of just 28%, Topaz and Desert Sunlight produce an average of just 154 megawatts of electricity. The poor production of solar energy farms is largely withheld from the public since solar farms are always presented as generating their "installed capacity." But when the sun doesn't shine, their miles and miles of transmission lines that carry power to the grid on sunny days hang idle from their massive steel towers.
Together Topaz and Desert Sunlight have 20 square miles of solar panels. Manhatten Island is 22.7 square miles. These two gigantic solar farms are rated to provide 1,100 megawatts of electricity but can actually produce a little over 300 megawatts. That is a trickle of electricity compared to Palo Verde Nuclear Station in the Arizona desert. Palo Verde has 3 reactors and provides America with an 3,700 megawatts of electricity all day, every day and it has or over 35 years.
Manufacturing:
Few people realize that the manufacturing of PV solar cells requires a witch's brew of toxic chemicals and furnaces that can run at 2000° C. The furnaces emit sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and some of the chemicals and by-products of the manufacturing process are tens of thousands more toxic than CO2.
Photo Voltaic (PV) solar cells are crystalline silicon and silicon may be made of sand but its path from sand to panel employs hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrogen fluoride, 1,1,1-trichloroethane and acetone. Silicon tetrachloride is a byproduct of panel production and silicon tetrachloride is highly toxic to plants and animals. The manufactured panels themseelves contain cadmium telluride, copper indium selenide, polyvinyl fluoride, lead and sulfur hexafluoride to name a few. The toxicity of solar energy is largely witheld from the public.
Recycling:
PV panels cannot be trashed or landfilled without precautions against toxic chemicals leaching into the soil and PV panels are not easy to recycle. Actually, there are not many money-making salvageable parts on any type of solar panel that makes recycling even practical. Solar panels are 90% glass, aluminum and plastic. Cadmium telluride panels have cadmium fused into the glass so the toxic cadmium has to be "washed" out of the glass before it can be reused.
Used nuclear fuel can be recycled. It generally retains about 95 percent of the uranium it started with. Once uranium or thorium is used in a reactor, it can be treated and put into another reactor as fuel. Recycling spent nuclear fuel reduces the volume of high-level radioactive waste by 80%. Recycling used fuel could also relieve our dependency on foreign countries to provide the medical isotopes needed for the 20 million nuclear medicine procedures performed each year.
Consumer Cost:
The cost of solar energy in the U.S. today is reported at 8 to 10 cents per kWh but we pay twice for solar energy; once in government subsidies and again in the electric bill. However the true cost of subsidies for solar energy is largely hidden from the public. What the government spends pn renewable energy in general can be hidden in costs for climate and for clean energy.
The International Renewable Energy Agency tracked some $634 billion in energy-sector subsidies in 2020, and reported that around 70% were fossil fuel subsidies. About 20% went to renewable power generation, 6% to biofuels and just over 3% to nuclear. But these figures can be very misleading. A large portion of "fossil fuel subsidies" are tax breaks for "drilling."
I cannot imagine that the subsidies reported include true costs for renewable energy. For example, Ivanpah Solar Electric is the world's largest Solar Thermal Plant. Invanpah is located on 3,500 acres of public land in the Mojave Desert. With NO COST for the land, Invanpah still cost taxpayers $2.2 billion to build and Invanpah received $1.6 billion in loan guarantees and $600 million in federal tax credits. Are these not subsidies?
Disposal:
While Forbes claims that the largest gift to fossil fuel companies comes from allowing them to use our atmosphere as a waste dump, solar is the only source of electricity that doesn't include the cost of waste disposal. No money is being set aside to replace old panels. No money is being set aside to dispose of old panels that are too toxic to be put in landfills. No money is being set aside to recycle old panels that probably will ever be worth recycling and there is no dedicated national program or requirement to safely dispose of solar panels.
Solar panels create 300 times more toxic waste per kilowatt than nuclear power plants. That waste isn’t a huge issue right now because there isn’t a big enough volume to cause concern. However, hundreds of millions of panels flooded the U.S. market in the last decade.In 2017 the United States installed about 35.3 million new solar panels. With a useful life of just 20-25 years the problem of solar panel disposal is going to explode soon.
At the end of their 25 year life there will be 1.9 million tons of lead and cadmium waste to dispose of. Cadmium is the 6th most deadly chemical known and lead is so dangerous in small quantities that its use in paint and gasoline has been banned for decades. When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last September, the nation's second largest solar farm lost a majority of its panels. In 2015 a tornado broke 200,000 solar modules at Desert Sunlight in southern California. When panels are cracked or broken, rainwater can wash lead and cadmium out of the panels and into the soil where it can leach into water supplies.
There is no national program or requirement to safely dispose of damaged or end-of-life solar panels and no guidelines on the proper way to recycle solar panels. California has long been a trendsetter in its clean energy goals and it is the first state to require all new homes to have solar power. But California law simply treats damaged and old solar panels as universal waste, like TVs or batteries. With no program or requirement to safely dispose of solar panels, many unfortunately may find their way to our landfills.
An Alternative:
If Climate Change really is caused by CO2 in the atmosphere, we could have started to eliminate the Climate Change crisis 50 years ago. Nuclear energy is carbon free, clean, green and 98% reliable. Nuclear plants have a life span of 65-80 years, not 25. Nuclear waste can be recycled but a law passed by President Carter in 1977 prevents recycling. As a result there is about 56,000 tons of "used fuel" piling up at storage facilities. Still, that is better than thousands of tons of undetectable cadmium and lead that becomes hazardous waste when PV panels are decommissioned.
If environmentalists really wanted to do something about the environment, nuclear fuel could be recycled. There is enough used nuclear fuel to power every household in the U.S. for 12 years and could conceivably run the U.S. nuclear fleet for almost 30 years with no new uranium input. Recycling would relieve our dependency on foreign countries to provide the medical isotopes needed for the 20 million nuclear medicine procedures performed each year and it would reduce dangerous nuclear waste by 80% or about one cubic yard per plant.
REFERENCES
Will Solar Power Become Our Next Environmental Crisis?
Heading For A Solar Waste Crisis
The Toxins of Solar Panels
Photovoltaics
About Solar Energy
Recycling Solar Panels
Installed Capacity vs Generation
The Need To Recycle PV Panels
Palo Verde and AZ Prop 127
Facing Facts About Renewable Energy
Data updataed June 2022
If we produced a lot of energy from the sun, it's negative impact might be worth ignoring. But we don't. For example, it takes 161 megawatts of electricity to light up Times Square in New York City. With today's technology it would be necessary to cover 35% of Manhatten Island with solar panels just to light up that famous intersection of Broadway and 7th Avenue.
Solar farms are high maintenance and must be entirely replaced every 20-25 years or be abandoned. Solar panels can be damaged by lightening, hailstorms, tornados, hurricanes and earthquakes. Every single solar panel contains dangerous lead and poisonious cadmium so solar panels cannot be discarded in our landfills. When panels are cracked or broken, rainwater can wash lead and cadmium out of the panels and into the soil where it can leach into water supplies.
Capacity Factor:
Topaz and Desert Sunlight Solar Farms are located in California; Topaz in Carizo Plains and Desert Sunlight in the Mojave Desert. Topaz Solar Farm has 9 million photovoltaic (PV) solar panels and Desert Sunlight has 8.8 million cadmium telluride panels. They are tied for second place among the largest solar plants, each having an installed capacity of 550 megawatts. But the amount of sunlight, the temperature, the wind and demand are all variables that affect their installed capacity giving them both capacity factors of under 28%.
Capacity factor measures how much electricity a power source generates over a measured period of time. With a capacity factor of just 28%, Topaz and Desert Sunlight produce an average of just 154 megawatts of electricity. The poor production of solar energy farms is largely withheld from the public since solar farms are always presented as generating their "installed capacity." But when the sun doesn't shine, their miles and miles of transmission lines that carry power to the grid on sunny days hang idle from their massive steel towers.
Together Topaz and Desert Sunlight have 20 square miles of solar panels. Manhatten Island is 22.7 square miles. These two gigantic solar farms are rated to provide 1,100 megawatts of electricity but can actually produce a little over 300 megawatts. That is a trickle of electricity compared to Palo Verde Nuclear Station in the Arizona desert. Palo Verde has 3 reactors and provides America with an 3,700 megawatts of electricity all day, every day and it has or over 35 years.
Manufacturing:
Few people realize that the manufacturing of PV solar cells requires a witch's brew of toxic chemicals and furnaces that can run at 2000° C. The furnaces emit sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and some of the chemicals and by-products of the manufacturing process are tens of thousands more toxic than CO2.
Photo Voltaic (PV) solar cells are crystalline silicon and silicon may be made of sand but its path from sand to panel employs hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrogen fluoride, 1,1,1-trichloroethane and acetone. Silicon tetrachloride is a byproduct of panel production and silicon tetrachloride is highly toxic to plants and animals. The manufactured panels themseelves contain cadmium telluride, copper indium selenide, polyvinyl fluoride, lead and sulfur hexafluoride to name a few. The toxicity of solar energy is largely witheld from the public.
Recycling:
PV panels cannot be trashed or landfilled without precautions against toxic chemicals leaching into the soil and PV panels are not easy to recycle. Actually, there are not many money-making salvageable parts on any type of solar panel that makes recycling even practical. Solar panels are 90% glass, aluminum and plastic. Cadmium telluride panels have cadmium fused into the glass so the toxic cadmium has to be "washed" out of the glass before it can be reused.
Used nuclear fuel can be recycled. It generally retains about 95 percent of the uranium it started with. Once uranium or thorium is used in a reactor, it can be treated and put into another reactor as fuel. Recycling spent nuclear fuel reduces the volume of high-level radioactive waste by 80%. Recycling used fuel could also relieve our dependency on foreign countries to provide the medical isotopes needed for the 20 million nuclear medicine procedures performed each year.
Consumer Cost:
The cost of solar energy in the U.S. today is reported at 8 to 10 cents per kWh but we pay twice for solar energy; once in government subsidies and again in the electric bill. However the true cost of subsidies for solar energy is largely hidden from the public. What the government spends pn renewable energy in general can be hidden in costs for climate and for clean energy.
The International Renewable Energy Agency tracked some $634 billion in energy-sector subsidies in 2020, and reported that around 70% were fossil fuel subsidies. About 20% went to renewable power generation, 6% to biofuels and just over 3% to nuclear. But these figures can be very misleading. A large portion of "fossil fuel subsidies" are tax breaks for "drilling."
I cannot imagine that the subsidies reported include true costs for renewable energy. For example, Ivanpah Solar Electric is the world's largest Solar Thermal Plant. Invanpah is located on 3,500 acres of public land in the Mojave Desert. With NO COST for the land, Invanpah still cost taxpayers $2.2 billion to build and Invanpah received $1.6 billion in loan guarantees and $600 million in federal tax credits. Are these not subsidies?
Disposal:
While Forbes claims that the largest gift to fossil fuel companies comes from allowing them to use our atmosphere as a waste dump, solar is the only source of electricity that doesn't include the cost of waste disposal. No money is being set aside to replace old panels. No money is being set aside to dispose of old panels that are too toxic to be put in landfills. No money is being set aside to recycle old panels that probably will ever be worth recycling and there is no dedicated national program or requirement to safely dispose of solar panels.
Solar panels create 300 times more toxic waste per kilowatt than nuclear power plants. That waste isn’t a huge issue right now because there isn’t a big enough volume to cause concern. However, hundreds of millions of panels flooded the U.S. market in the last decade.In 2017 the United States installed about 35.3 million new solar panels. With a useful life of just 20-25 years the problem of solar panel disposal is going to explode soon.
At the end of their 25 year life there will be 1.9 million tons of lead and cadmium waste to dispose of. Cadmium is the 6th most deadly chemical known and lead is so dangerous in small quantities that its use in paint and gasoline has been banned for decades. When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last September, the nation's second largest solar farm lost a majority of its panels. In 2015 a tornado broke 200,000 solar modules at Desert Sunlight in southern California. When panels are cracked or broken, rainwater can wash lead and cadmium out of the panels and into the soil where it can leach into water supplies.
There is no national program or requirement to safely dispose of damaged or end-of-life solar panels and no guidelines on the proper way to recycle solar panels. California has long been a trendsetter in its clean energy goals and it is the first state to require all new homes to have solar power. But California law simply treats damaged and old solar panels as universal waste, like TVs or batteries. With no program or requirement to safely dispose of solar panels, many unfortunately may find their way to our landfills.
An Alternative:
If Climate Change really is caused by CO2 in the atmosphere, we could have started to eliminate the Climate Change crisis 50 years ago. Nuclear energy is carbon free, clean, green and 98% reliable. Nuclear plants have a life span of 65-80 years, not 25. Nuclear waste can be recycled but a law passed by President Carter in 1977 prevents recycling. As a result there is about 56,000 tons of "used fuel" piling up at storage facilities. Still, that is better than thousands of tons of undetectable cadmium and lead that becomes hazardous waste when PV panels are decommissioned.
If environmentalists really wanted to do something about the environment, nuclear fuel could be recycled. There is enough used nuclear fuel to power every household in the U.S. for 12 years and could conceivably run the U.S. nuclear fleet for almost 30 years with no new uranium input. Recycling would relieve our dependency on foreign countries to provide the medical isotopes needed for the 20 million nuclear medicine procedures performed each year and it would reduce dangerous nuclear waste by 80% or about one cubic yard per plant.
I am a concerned citizen that has researched, studied and written about renewable and clean energy sources for 3 decades. I have a BSEE degree with a minor in Physics. It's mind boggling to me that we let fanatics scare us away from nyclear energy after Three Mile Is;and and it is mind-boggling to me that we let politicians, profiteers and clever marketers bamboozle us wioth contrived data about solar energy.
Charles Tyrrell
Charles Tyrrell
REFERENCES
Will Solar Power Become Our Next Environmental Crisis?
Heading For A Solar Waste Crisis
The Toxins of Solar Panels
Photovoltaics
About Solar Energy
Recycling Solar Panels
Installed Capacity vs Generation
The Need To Recycle PV Panels
Palo Verde and AZ Prop 127
Facing Facts About Renewable Energy
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