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From the link you just provided: Millions upon millions of tonnes of e-waste just in panels, no mention about batteries. And the industrial processes involved
by igravious 8y ago
From the link you just provided:
Millions upon millions of tonnes of e-waste just in panels, no mention about batteries.
And the industrial processes involved?
(A) Silicon based PV panels
(1) Disassembly of aluminium and glass parts
(2) Thermal processing at 500C!
(3) Physically separating cell modules
(4) Etching away silicon wafers (using acid!)
(5) Melting broken wafers (at what temp?)
And what % rates does that give you? 100% metal reuse, 95% glass reuse, 85% silicon reuse, 80% modules reused: all in all sounds pretty energy intensive and doesn't even result in 100% recycling
(B) Thin-film based PV panels
(1) Shredding the PV panels into 4-5mm pieces to remove lamination
(2) Separating solid and liquid with a rotating screw
(3) Removing film using acid and peroxide!
(4) Removing interlayers materials with vibration
(5) Rinsing the glass (using up how much water?)
(6) Separating and processing metals
And what % rates does that give you? 95% semiconductor material reuse, 90% glass reused: all in all sounds pretty energy intensive and doesn't even result in 100% recycling
And of course you have to build the reprocessing and recycling plants which is energy intensive and generates greenhouse gas emissions because construction is a major source of greenhouse gas emission.
And again, that's saying nothing about battery waste.
But yeah, solar pv panels and battery modules: great solution …
- chopin 8y agoTo be fair, you'll have to compare this to the treatment of the fuel waste and the decommissioned plant. Especially the former problem seems to be largely unsolved.
- mrpopo 8y agoTreatment of fuel waste is not really a difficult problem. This is where swiss fuel waste is stored : https://www.zwilag.ch/en/cask-storage-hall-_content---1--1054.html https://www.zwilag.ch/en/cask-storage-hall-_content---1--105... An area less than half a (european) football stadium to contain 45 years of fuel waste for 4 nuclear plants. As of April 2018, there are 449 operable power reactors in the world. That means you need an area as large as 56 football stadiums to contain all the fuel waste in the world. Not exactly an impressive area. A solar park this size would output energy equivalent to less than a 10th of one modern nuclear plant. *EDIT: changed a 1000th to a 10th. It greatly exaggerates the solar capacity, but it doesn't change the point anyway.