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Solar panels contain heavy metals like cadmium that leech into the soil and water as the panels age. This is not a safe approach. https://www.discovermagazine

Solar panels contain heavy metals like cadmium that leech into the soil and water as the panels age. This is not a safe approach. https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/solar-panel-waste-the-dark-side-of-clean-energy https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/solar-panel-was...

yumraj 5y ago
But that seems to only be an issue when they are literally dumped in a landfill. In the case above, where they are mounted, why would it be an issue? Or, are you saying that they leech, say, when it rains? But in that case, wouldn't roof mounted solar panels be equally bad as in leech heavy metals into home soil and I had not heard that to be an issue.
VygmraMGVl 5y ago
This link's reference for "solar panels leach [cadmium] into the soil and water as the panels age" is a paper that simulated *landfill conditions* on CdTe solar cells. In the study linked, the solar panels were ball-milled and then suspended in anaerobic sludge. This is not comparable to suggesting solar panels will leach cadmium and lead into the soil underneath them during their normal operation. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5607867/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5607867/
- rcxdude 5y ago
  Also, most solar panels are not CdTe cells, the vast majority of the market are silicon cells (CdTe making <10% of the market).
weaksauce 5y ago
...in a landfill environment. those aren't leeching into the ground during their normal lifespan. sure recycling should be done more in earnest but to say this is unsafe is silly.
jeffbee 5y ago
Coal ash contains 100ppm Cd and the USA produces and dumps into the environment 130 million tons of that annually. PV panels are glass-encapsulated and only leach metals if you literally grind them into dust and then submerge the result.
- TheSpiceIsLife 5y ago
  Am I mathsing this right? 100/1,000,000 = 0.0001 0.0001 * 130,000,000 = 13,000 Tonnes. Annually. Just from the US. Or we could have learned to build better safer nuclear <face palm>
  - vidarh 5y ago
    Coal ash also result in more uranium pumped into the air as well. Coal, through the various damaging substances we pump out, kills more people every year than all nuclear accidents combined have killed going by worst case estimates. Very few things have a lower death toll by energy generated than nuclear, but whatever one thinks of nuclear, coal is truly nasty. You could have a Chernobyl every year and it'd still be better than coal.

yumraj 5y ago

But that seems to only be an issue when they are literally dumped in a landfill. In the case above, where they are mounted, why would it be an issue? Or, are you saying that they leech, say, when it rains? But in that case, wouldn't roof mounted solar panels be equally bad as in leech heavy metals into home soil and I had not heard that to be an issue.

VygmraMGVl 5y ago

This link's reference for "solar panels leach [cadmium] into the soil and water as the panels age" is a paper that simulated *landfill conditions* on CdTe solar cells. In the study linked, the solar panels were ball-milled and then suspended in anaerobic sludge. This is not comparable to suggesting solar panels will leach cadmium and lead into the soil underneath them during their normal operation. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5607867/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5607867/

rcxdude 5y ago
Also, most solar panels are not CdTe cells, the vast majority of the market are silicon cells (CdTe making <10% of the market).

weaksauce 5y ago

...in a landfill environment. those aren't leeching into the ground during their normal lifespan. sure recycling should be done more in earnest but to say this is unsafe is silly.

jeffbee 5y ago

Coal ash contains 100ppm Cd and the USA produces and dumps into the environment 130 million tons of that annually. PV panels are glass-encapsulated and only leach metals if you literally grind them into dust and then submerge the result.

TheSpiceIsLife 5y ago
Am I mathsing this right? 100/1,000,000 = 0.0001 0.0001 * 130,000,000 = 13,000 Tonnes. Annually. Just from the US. Or we could have learned to build better safer nuclear <face palm>
- vidarh 5y ago
  Coal ash also result in more uranium pumped into the air as well. Coal, through the various damaging substances we pump out, kills more people every year than all nuclear accidents combined have killed going by worst case estimates. Very few things have a lower death toll by energy generated than nuclear, but whatever one thinks of nuclear, coal is truly nasty. You could have a Chernobyl every year and it'd still be better than coal.