The first generation of solar panels will wear out. A recycling industry is taking shape

[NickB79]

https://apnews.com/article/recycle-solar-panel-circular-economy-sustainability-dc7284bab2180b5bd86ff5cb5c847652

By 2050, solar waste will total some 78 million tons globally, said Mool Gupta, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Virginia. The reason recycling and recovery isn’t robust yet, Gupta said, is that companies struggle to justify the $30 per panel cost when it costs only $1 to send it to a landfill.

If we hope to one day see 100% of retired solar recycled, said Garvin Heath, distinguished member of the research staff at the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, “Let’s not make it any more expensive than what it would cost to landfill the module ... let’s not have it cost the consumer anything and instead have it break even for the recycler.”

I mean, it's a start, I guess.

[brush]

1. What, they wear out relatively soon after all that money spent?

I sat for a solar presentation about three months ago. The salesman was a nice guy, but I couldn't justify spending 20k, and thank God as with the payment terms specified, I see now I would've just finished paying them off when they would wear out.

And the cost savings didn't justify it either.

[gay texan]

2. I have some the late 90s

And they are still cranking away

[NickB79]

4. No, they typically last 25+ yr

And they don't just stop; they lose efficiency over time. Eventually it becomes more cost effective to replace them even if they're still delivering electricity.

But that means the first gen of solar would be wearing out now. And it means all the panels we've installed to date will be scrapped by 2050.

I don't understand your statement about the solar presentation. Even up here in snowy Minnesota, rooftop solar installations break even in approximately 10 yr.

[brush]

5. The solar presentation was a home visit by a solar salesman...

who had literature and a laptop computer with a video to watch as he gave his spiel to convince me to agree to have the panels installed and make the monthly payments for 20 or so years.

Now let me ask you a question, your rooftop solar installations break even in approximately 10 yr?

That's worse than I thought.

[NickB79]

6. Yes, 9-10 yr is normal up here for a cost return

I don't sell solar, I just have friends with it on their homes who love it. We're nerds and show off stuff like that to each other.

They're all grid-tied and have enough capacity installed to zero out their electricity bills, or even make a small profit. I've been looking into it myself due to their experiences. After federal subsidies, it would cost me around $20K. The monthly payment would be roughly equal to my electricity bill for a 10 yr loan, then it's paid off.

10 years doesn't seem daunting though, because I'm in my mid 40's and never plan on moving. So, the panels may outlive me 🤣

[Blues Heron]

3. cant they be used as roofing materials or skylights, windows? Stained glass?

in the end its a nice piece of glass, cut to shape.

[NNadir]

7. Unfortunately the recycling will take energy solar can't really provide.

The solar industry after trillion of dollars squandered on it can barely power all the servers and computers dedicated to saying how great it is.

The "recycling" make believe excuse for the unacceptable and unsustainable material demands for this useless industry will probably go as well as the recycling excuse for the plastics industry.

There will be some Potemkin plants for everyone to pretend that it's OK to lie to themselves with the bulk ending up, as is the case with plastics, in landfills or surreptitiously dumped uncontrolled in the environment.

The solar industry is useless at addressing climate change. The rote dogmatic faith in this exercise in consumer disposal culture is rapidly making thing worse, not better.

History will not forgive us, nor should it.

[NickB79]

8. It may turn out like the farce that is plastic recycling

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/24/1131131088/recycling-plastic-is-practically-impossible-and-the-problem-is-getting-worse

The vast majority of plastic that people use, and in many cases put into blue recycling bins, is headed to landfills, or worse, according to a report from Greenpeace on the state of plastic recycling in the U.S.

The report cites separate data published this May which revealed that the amount of plastic actually turned into new things has fallen to new lows of around 5%. That number is expected to drop further as more plastic is produced.

[NNadir]

9. Exactly. Even if they manage to collect some of the electronic waste, the energy involved...

...in reprocessing this junk will involve heat, the very thing that solar energy, with its unreliability, cannot provide.

It's already a disaster, but the bill has yet to come in.