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Two things have happened in this area recently. 1. The grams of rare earths required per watt of solar have been dropping steadily. And Solar PV panels with no
by RamezNaam 11y ago
Two things have happened in this area recently.
1. The grams of rare earths required per watt of solar have been dropping steadily. And Solar PV panels with no rare earths at all have been developed, though they are not yet common.
2. "Rare earths" are not so rare. Their prices have tumbled substantially as new mines have opened up and substitutes have been found.
- joshuapants 11y ago> 2. "Rare earths" are not so rare. Their prices have tumbled substantially as new mines have opened up and substitutes have been found. Yes, but mining them is an environmental disaster.
- danmaz74 11y agoWhich is nothing compared to the environmental disasters that a 3 or 4 celsius degrees increase in the World temperature will bring us.
- mikeash 11y agoCan you quantify that? I'm seeing comments in this thread saying, over and over again, that manufacturing these things is an environmental disaster. But without numbers, the statement is meaningless. We are currently poisoning pretty much the entire planet for our energy needs. If we cut that down to, say, poisoning an area the size of Texas for our energy needs, that would be a massive win.
- DennisP 11y agoSolar is definitely far better than fossil. It's just not entirely clear that it's better than nuclear, especially with the advanced reactors that get a hundred times as much energy from the same fuel, and produce only a small amount of short-lived waste.
- Daishiman 11y agoHumanity is an environmental disaster. The issue at stake is avoiding the worse evils right now so that we can continue to lead a somewhat prosperous existence which, with some hope, will eventually become sustainable.