China Solar Panel Pollution

Solar panels 15 less productive due to pollution.

China solar panel pollution.

Protests last month exposed pollution problems at a manufacturing site in zhejiang province which according to industry insiders are just the tip of the iceberg. At a three day international solar panel exhibition in may hundreds of solar panel manufacturers and buyers convened in shanghai. Solar panels generate 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than nuclear power plants. Pollution cuts the amount of electricity china s solar panels can generate by 11 to 15.

China is halting construction on new coal powered plants that emit the hazardous pollutants that often choke cities in a thick blanket of toxic smog. Panels produced in china which relies heavily on coal for power have a larger carbon footprint than those produced in europe. They also contain lead cadmium and other toxic even carcinogenic chemicals that cannot be removed without breaking apart the entire panel. Environmental scientists and solar industry leaders are raising the red flag about used solar panels which contain toxic heavy metals and are considered hazardous waste.

But the view from solar panel factories is sometimes a little different. The issue of how to dispose of hazardous waste from ageing panels casts a shadow over the drive towards renewable energy. Symbolic of an era of new energy the solar industry presents a bright and clean image to the world. China s ageing solar panels are going to be a big environmental problem.

China has some of the worst air pollution in the world. The country has more solar energy capacity than any. New research shows that such smog not only dims the daylight and makes the air hard to breathe but it reduces the amount of sunlight reaching china s solar panels. Worse rainwater can wash many of these toxics out of the fragments of solar modules over time.

Researchers at switzerland s institute for atmospheric and climate science found that solar panels in china produced 15 less electricity in 2015 than they would ve in 1960 due to the rising amount of pollution mainly from coal plants blocking sunlight from hitting the ground.