China Solar Panels Pollution

Solar panels glimmering in the sun are an icon of all that is green.

China solar panels pollution.

Generation of solar power in china. 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. With recycling expensive. China s ageing solar panels are going to be a big environmental problem 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. 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. Solar panels generate 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than nuclear power plants. Most readers have likely seen exciting headlines claiming we could power the world s energy demands multiple times were we simply to cover the sahara desert with a solar farm the size of china.

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. Solar panels 15 less productive due to pollution. But the view from solar panel factories is sometimes a little different. They also contain lead cadmium and other toxic even carcinogenic chemicals that cannot be removed without breaking apart the entire panel.

Worse rainwater can wash many of these toxics out of the fragments of solar modules over time.