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> The path is straightforward: electrify everything, and make the grid green. Do solutions to deal with solar panels and wind turbine blades after they've reac

by roeles 5y ago

> The path is straightforward: electrify everything, and make the grid green. Do solutions to deal with solar panels and wind turbine blades after they've reached their lifetime? Otherwise it feels like we're solving one problem by creating another, to me.

bryanlarsen 5y ago
1. Replacing a massive problem with a much smaller problem is significant forward progress. We're replacing gigatonnes of annual CO2 causing an existential crisis with kilotonnes of inert industrial waste. 2. Why do you insist that panels and blades have to be recycled when approximately nothing else is? 3. The recyclability of turbine blades and solar panels is a problem being worked on. They are recyclable, just not economically so. If or when somebody solves the economics problem of recycling, then it'll be solved for blades and panels. If we insist on requiring recycling for blades and panels but nothing else then you are perpetuating obstructionism. 4. https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/end-wind-power-waste-vestas-unveils-blade-recycling-technology-2021-05-17/ https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/end-wi...
- roeles 5y ago
  In general I realized that most clean tech is difficult to recycle at this point, from this site[1]. I'm just trying to get the big picture, and hoping that we don't solve one problem by creating the next. In the end our waste ends up in the environment and in our food. 1. You are quite possibly right. Do you have a source supporting that the expected industrial waste is in the kilotonnes range? I'm not arguing it is not, I don't know. 2. It's just something that occured to me recently. It's not that just these things have to be recycled. It would be best if we did something about waste too. 3. and 4. Thanks for the link! [1] https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2019/06/wooden-wind-turbines.html https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2019/06/wooden-wind-turbin...

by roeles 5y ago

bryanlarsen 5y ago

1. Replacing a massive problem with a much smaller problem is significant forward progress. We're replacing gigatonnes of annual CO2 causing an existential crisis with kilotonnes of inert industrial waste. 2. Why do you insist that panels and blades have to be recycled when approximately nothing else is? 3. The recyclability of turbine blades and solar panels is a problem being worked on. They are recyclable, just not economically so. If or when somebody solves the economics problem of recycling, then it'll be solved for blades and panels. If we insist on requiring recycling for blades and panels but nothing else then you are perpetuating obstructionism. 4. https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/end-wind-power-waste-vestas-unveils-blade-recycling-technology-2021-05-17/ https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/end-wi...

roeles 5y ago
In general I realized that most clean tech is difficult to recycle at this point, from this site[1]. I'm just trying to get the big picture, and hoping that we don't solve one problem by creating the next. In the end our waste ends up in the environment and in our food. 1. You are quite possibly right. Do you have a source supporting that the expected industrial waste is in the kilotonnes range? I'm not arguing it is not, I don't know. 2. It's just something that occured to me recently. It's not that just these things have to be recycled. It would be best if we did something about waste too. 3. and 4. Thanks for the link! [1] https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2019/06/wooden-wind-turbines.html https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2019/06/wooden-wind-turbin...