7 ms·

why not solar instead of wind? So many farms dont have water, may as well cover them over with panels or mirrors, no ?

suneilp 11y ago
Solar panels would have to be maintained rigorously for any leakages. Some of the chemicals in them are not so good for us.
- URSpider94 11y ago
  Can you be more specific? All of the solar panels that I'm aware of are 100% solid state, there is nothing that can "leak" out...
  - suneilp 11y ago
    Arsenic, cadmium, lead, polyvinyl fluoride, and probably more. There are indeed liquid based solar panels. The toxicity of solar panels both in their production and their usage has been reported on a great deal. Some companies are making changes to make them safer but I have no clue how far along those efforts are. Solar farms are hurting the ecosystem when they break and leak out. Even if they aren't liquid based, solid state versions have thin films which contain some chemicals like cadmium and arsenic. Cadmium telluride has been introduced more recently has it is safer.
    - pjc50 11y ago
      This comment is a weird mix of truth and untruth. Yes, there's a lot of toxic chemicals involved in solar panel production, as there is in IC production and a whole load of other production processes. http://www.solarindustrymag.com/issues/SI1309/FEAT_05_Hazardous_Materials_Used_In_Silicon_PV_Cell_Production_A_Primer.html http://www.solarindustrymag.com/issues/SI1309/FEAT_05_Hazard... Liquid solar panels are simply not a production-ready technology. There are no commercial liquid solar cell farms. Installed solar panels are solid. They're not particularly prone to corrosion and 'leaking', and are >99% silicon with trace amounts of boron and phosphorous. CdTe is actually nastier. Solar farms are hurting the ecosystem when they break and leak out [citation needed]
    - URSpider94 11y ago
      Glad to see that someone else responded, so I'm not alone here ... this is mostly nonsense. I have NEVER seen a report on toxicity of solar panels in use from "leakage", if there is such a thing, please post. Yes, solar panels contain elements like Cd and As, so do many of the electronics that you carry around in your pocket, and as long as they are bonded inside a semiconductor, they are basically inert slices of rock. However, most commercial solar panels today are silicon-based, with these other elements as dopants at a tiny percentage. A CdTe solar panel would be made of, well, Cadmium and Tellurium, both of which are pound-for-pound thousands of time more toxic to humans than silicon !!!! (though still basically inert slices of rock if they are in solid-state solar panels). Admittedly, as with all e-waste, we need to look to what happens to solar panels when their life is up and they are landfilled or, hopefully, recycled. That said, over its 25+ year useful life, a solar panel will prevent tons of coal from being burned, which in and of itself would release a non-zero amount of cadmium and other heavy metals into the atmosphere.
pjc50 11y ago
Solar as well as wind. Clearly there's no shortage of electricity at night if it's being given away.
- HiLo 11y ago
  That's such as simplified analysis. Perhaps there's no shortage (unlikely given Texas' power needs), perhaps there's transportation bottlenecks creating local oversupply? That price has to lower to send the price signal that the arb is there and firms can make money building that transmission, at which point, just like the other energy products in West Texas (crude), the relative price will begin to rise again relative to the benchmark. (See: West Texas / Midland grades of crude being priced at steep discounts that are now shrinking due to increased pipeline capacity coming online.) It's not that Midland crudes were "oversupplied" it's that demand was being "artificially" lowered by transportation bottlenecks. (Economists / econometricians may argue definitions with me on that, but from the energy trader perspective, that's how I would approach it.)
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
sokoloff 11y ago
You realize that a farm has another (more organic) use for solar energy, right?
- manicdee 11y ago
  I'm sure the farmers would gladly trade some sunlight for some fresh water.

Solar panels would have to be maintained rigorously for any leakages. Some of the chemicals in them are not so good for us.

URSpider94 11y ago
Can you be more specific? All of the solar panels that I'm aware of are 100% solid state, there is nothing that can "leak" out...
- suneilp 11y ago
  Arsenic, cadmium, lead, polyvinyl fluoride, and probably more. There are indeed liquid based solar panels. The toxicity of solar panels both in their production and their usage has been reported on a great deal. Some companies are making changes to make them safer but I have no clue how far along those efforts are. Solar farms are hurting the ecosystem when they break and leak out. Even if they aren't liquid based, solid state versions have thin films which contain some chemicals like cadmium and arsenic. Cadmium telluride has been introduced more recently has it is safer.
  - pjc50 11y ago
    This comment is a weird mix of truth and untruth. Yes, there's a lot of toxic chemicals involved in solar panel production, as there is in IC production and a whole load of other production processes. http://www.solarindustrymag.com/issues/SI1309/FEAT_05_Hazardous_Materials_Used_In_Silicon_PV_Cell_Production_A_Primer.html http://www.solarindustrymag.com/issues/SI1309/FEAT_05_Hazard... Liquid solar panels are simply not a production-ready technology. There are no commercial liquid solar cell farms. Installed solar panels are solid. They're not particularly prone to corrosion and 'leaking', and are >99% silicon with trace amounts of boron and phosphorous. CdTe is actually nastier. Solar farms are hurting the ecosystem when they break and leak out [citation needed]
  - URSpider94 11y ago
    Glad to see that someone else responded, so I'm not alone here ... this is mostly nonsense. I have NEVER seen a report on toxicity of solar panels in use from "leakage", if there is such a thing, please post. Yes, solar panels contain elements like Cd and As, so do many of the electronics that you carry around in your pocket, and as long as they are bonded inside a semiconductor, they are basically inert slices of rock. However, most commercial solar panels today are silicon-based, with these other elements as dopants at a tiny percentage. A CdTe solar panel would be made of, well, Cadmium and Tellurium, both of which are pound-for-pound thousands of time more toxic to humans than silicon !!!! (though still basically inert slices of rock if they are in solid-state solar panels). Admittedly, as with all e-waste, we need to look to what happens to solar panels when their life is up and they are landfilled or, hopefully, recycled. That said, over its 25+ year useful life, a solar panel will prevent tons of coal from being burned, which in and of itself would release a non-zero amount of cadmium and other heavy metals into the atmosphere.

pjc50 11y ago

Solar as well as wind. Clearly there's no shortage of electricity at night if it's being given away.

HiLo 11y ago
That's such as simplified analysis. Perhaps there's no shortage (unlikely given Texas' power needs), perhaps there's transportation bottlenecks creating local oversupply? That price has to lower to send the price signal that the arb is there and firms can make money building that transmission, at which point, just like the other energy products in West Texas (crude), the relative price will begin to rise again relative to the benchmark. (See: West Texas / Midland grades of crude being priced at steep discounts that are now shrinking due to increased pipeline capacity coming online.) It's not that Midland crudes were "oversupplied" it's that demand was being "artificially" lowered by transportation bottlenecks. (Economists / econometricians may argue definitions with me on that, but from the energy trader perspective, that's how I would approach it.)
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

sokoloff 11y ago

You realize that a farm has another (more organic) use for solar energy, right?

manicdee 11y ago
I'm sure the farmers would gladly trade some sunlight for some fresh water.