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The Great Solar Waste Misdirection
Fossil Fuels Produce 40x More Solid Waste and 500x More CO₂ Per Megawatt-Hour
Every few months, another wave of media reports predictably warns about the supposed “looming crisis” of solar panel waste. Given the urgency of climate action, it’s frustrating to see the conversation repeatedly derailed by these exaggerated concerns. I’ve previously examined this narrative around wind energy, demonstrating clearly in my CleanTechnica analysis that wind turbine waste per megawatt-hour generated is tiny compared to the truly monumental environmental impact of coal and gas. It’s past time I applied a similar perspective to solar photovoltaics.
Solar panel waste does exist, to be sure, and it has grown alongside the rapid global deployment of solar energy. Between 2020 and 2024, the global mass of discarded solar panels roughly quadrupled, rising from about 220,000 tonnes annually in 2020 to approaching 900,000 tonnes by 2024. These numbers sound significant on their own until we put them in proper context. The vast majority of this waste comes not from natural end-of-life retirement after 25–30 years, but from early replacements due to storm damage, economic upgrades, or manufacturing defects in early panel generations. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), over 90% of panels scrapped…
