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What are the by-products of manufacturing and maintaining batteries and solar panels? I'd like to learn more about the inputs and outputs, then maybe I can lear
by pininja 10y ago
What are the by-products of manufacturing and maintaining batteries and solar panels? I'd like to learn more about the inputs and outputs, then maybe I can learn a better comparison between fossil fuels and solar.
What are we transforming in order to create, store, and consume solar energy and fossil fuel energy?
- bhhaskin 10y agoWhats worse is the waste left over after a battery is past it life span.
- sinxoveretothex 10y agoNot for Musk's Tesla at least: https://www.tesla.com/blog/mythbusters-part-3-recycling-our-non-toxic-battery-packs https://www.tesla.com/blog/mythbusters-part-3-recycling-our-... https://www.tesla.com/blog/teslas-closed-loop-battery-recycling-program https://www.tesla.com/blog/teslas-closed-loop-battery-recycl...
- sinxoveretothex 10y agoYou would want to look at lifecycle analysis studies (here's a few [1][2]). The big problem with fossil fuel is that it takes fuel to extract new fuels (high cost sources like tar sands have a ratio of like 1 fuel unit used to extract 2) AND they have a cost for each unit of power generated. Most renewables (excluding biofuels for example), have a manufacturing cost, but little to no energy generation cost (solar and wind have none, hydropower basins have something like 1/1000th the emissions of coal). [1] http://phys.org/news/2014-10-first-ever-global-life-renewable-energy.html http://phys.org/news/2014-10-first-ever-global-life-renewabl... [2] http://www.nrel.gov/analysis/sustain_lca_results.html http://www.nrel.gov/analysis/sustain_lca_results.html