ENVIRONMENT
The Unsustainable Side of Solar Energy
While the system reduces the greenhouse gases when in use, its manufacturing and disposal are not as good for the environment.
Natural is best goes the belief. Harvesting sun’s energy for electricity is the ultimate form of living in harmony with the nature. A device is made, it captures sun’s rays that we use, we discard the device and move on to the next when it stops working to continue our collaboration with nature.
Make panels → Use solar energy → Dispose panels
We all know the good stuff that happens in the middle. Let’s explore the before and the after.
The Making of Solar Panels
Most of the solar panels used around the world are made in China, using coal. And these panels need some raw materials that are disturbing the environment in their own way.
Silicon — this key component is extracted from sand. And believe it or not, we are running out of sand. Demand for silica for construction, electronics and solar panels is causing a shortage of the most abundant resource of the planet. Sand mafias and illegal mining in eco-sensitive areas is thriving. Moreover, the process of converting silicon to polysilicon, the material used in solar panels, is a very energy intensive one. More than 75% polysilicon is made in China using coal power.
Glass — glass is also made from sand and its production is a very energy intensive process as well. Plus it is fragile and expensive to transport.
Silver, Aluminium, Copper — these metals are more often than not mined in regions close of biodiversity hotspots, indigenous lands or water scarce areas where they disrupt the local ecosystem.
The Disposal of Solar Panels
Sending panels to landfills is a sheer wastage of critical resources and they also leach toxic chemicals as they break down.
Most solar panels towards their end of useful life so far have been going in landfills. And as the majority of deployed panels right now reach their expected end of life soon, we can expect a surge of panels within a decade waiting for their end of life treatment. Throwing them out is not only be a sheer wastage of valuable resources, but these panels also leach toxic chemicals as they break down leading to hazardous conditions for landfill workers.
Why are we not recycling them? It’s not economical right now. Because there are fewer panels getting decommissioned compared to the new panels getting installed, the low volume makes their recycling expensive. In the US, while recycling a panel can cost somewhere between $12-$25, it only takes a dollar at most to dump it in a landfill. And hence, only about 10% of panels get recycled. As more old panels get into the market, the hope is that their recycling will also pick up pace.
So yeah, while using more and more solar energy is great, we don’t have a plan of how to deal with the toxic elements when we discard the panels. Also, many valuable resources they use like silicon, silver, glass and aluminium are recyclable but we are still greatly dependent on virgin resources. Until we close the loop of material recovery, our current system of solar energy is not in harmony with nature.
