What happens when solar panels die?

https://www.engadget.com/science/what-happens-when-solar-panels-die-140019832.html

8 Comments

  1. grickenploomy on

    The investment is worth it for it’s output, and we already have so many things that we either recycle or go to the trash bin

  2. FyreJadeblood on

    They are reincarnated into a new solar panel. Unlike fossil fuels, which turn into an amalgamation of ghosts that actively works to enact revenge on the environment and the world.

  3. They’re shredded, the components sorted, and all the glass/silica/plastic goes into a landfill where it slowly destroys the oceans. The useful gold parts are then turned into new solar panels. The actual %age of each panel that’s actually successfully recycled heavily depends on the brand, cheap Chinese panels aren’t built to have their resources recovered as western ones are. There’s also no hard requirement to check them for PFAs and other forever chemicals, especially if they’re shipped out to Mexico, the Philippines or China for dumping which is why China doesn’t take them back anymore.

    For the average homeowner, it’s like changing a DPF on a diesel car. It’ll cost about 10% of the house to have all the panels ripped out and replaced with modern ones, or else the house will be uninsurable for being a fire hazard from faulty electronics. Insurance companies are already catching onto this and, eventually, they’ll require homeowners to pre-buy disposal with a core deposit exactly as car owners pre-buy car battery disposal with car battery core deposits. Which is exactly what we do with nuclear waste, too.

  4. This is fine, but I am so tired of people asking this question. When they build a new skyscraper no one ever asks what’s going to happen to the windows in 30 years. And most people reading this on phone don’t ask what’s going to happen to that when they get a new one. but for solar haters ask it all the time

  5. The post is four hours old, and judging by the comments so far I suspect I might be the only commenter to have actually read the article.