Posted on 08/01/2023 12:42:55 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Sunlight beats down on a graveyard for dead solar panels in Yuma, Arizona, hundreds stacked in neat piles, waiting for their next life. The great majority of worn and damaged panels are still dumped in landfills. But with more and more piling up, many people know that needs to change.
In this desert city where Arizona, California, Sonora and Baja California meet, North America’s first utility-scale solar panel recycling plant has opened to address what founders of We Recycle Solar call a “tsunami” of solar waste. Plans to address climate change rely on massively scaling up clean, solar electricity.
The panels, stacked and banded, come here from the company’s main collection warehouse in Hackettstown, New Jersey, plus six other locations across the country. […]
Solar panels are built to withstand decades of harsh weather, so it’s difficult to break the resilient bonding that keeps them together. Separating the glass without it shattering, for example, is a challenge. But with robotic suction arms assisted by workers, they come apart.
Some of the highest value materials are copper, silver, aluminum, glass, and crystalline silicon. Repurposing these means finding new uses for them, such as selling glass to companies that do sandblasting. …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
So who is going to pay for this service? I doubt it will pay for itself.
You will pay the tax, just like bottle recycling.
Didn’t a solar farm in the west just get hammered by a hail storm?
The smart ones amongst us would have moved to Afghanistan and changed our name to Mohammed. Then go looking for the American Generals and offering ‘help’ as informants. The money is easier than the solar business and just as crooked.
Too late.
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.No explanation for the disparity in costs.
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. …
Here, “recycling” = costly waste disposal.
Huh?
I’m talking’ bout the government waste-some mandated.
I don’t see that in the post.
“Repurposing these means finding new uses for them, such as selling glass to companies that do sandblasting.”
I wonder how much energy is used to transform glass back into sand as opposed to just using sand in the first place?
I wonder how much energy is used to transform glass back into sand as opposed to just using sand in the first place?
There is a shortage of sand (and gravel) in my area due to the NIMBY’s not wanting any gravel pits near them, and the increased demand for concrete for new buildings and mass transit.
So, my power bill is approx $85-$145 depending on the season. I spoke to a homeowner nearby who got solar panels. They were $25k and the company financed them 0% interest for 10 years. She said they last 10 years and will then need to replace them. Her financed monthly amount is $208 per month - much more than my power bill.
Scratching my head at why...
I saw the story about this plant about a month ago on YouTube. I am sure if you search for it you can find it. Some of the panels they had were only a few years old.
There is a market for the components that come out of solar panels. However, there may ALSO be a COST to dispose of your old panels. I do not believe that you can take these old panels to your local landfill.
I paid $.10/lb just this past weekend to take my 51 year old sliding door to the transfer station in the town next door to me. It was a 1972 Pella door. It weighed 280 pounds according to the scale. SO, I paid them $28 cash money to get rid of my old door.
As another total opposite example of recycling I recently visited a scrap yard in Idaho. They had a machine the cuts up catalytic converters. It separates out the rare earth elements and vacuums up all the dust. When the 55 gallon drums are full of dust they are worth over $12K. FYI, I asked what CC was worth the most. It was the Ford Expedition. They have two worth $850 EACH. Now, I know why people steel them so a sawsall so frequently. They had 24/7 monitored security on the warehouse that housed the machine and inventory of catalytic converters.
I was just testing a panel 45 minutes ago that I purchased in 1999. These are off-grid panels mind you, not grid interconnected with all the regulations and permits those require. Anyway, the ‘99 panel still manages 95% of the output of a similar panel purchased in 2015, which is remarkable and much better than expected. Even if there is some error in measurement the longevity is terrific. So I don’t know where the ten-year replacement comes from unless it is just a stupid obsolescence rule to sell more panels.
I expect to be still using that panel when it is 30 years old.
Holy crap! Where is this solar farm?
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