From article.
California has been a pioneer in pushing for rooftop solar power, building up the largest solar market in the U.S. More than 20 years and 1.3 million rooftops later, the bill is coming due.
Beginning in 2006, the state, focused on how to incentivize people to take up solar power, showered subsidies on homeowners who installed photovoltaic panels but had no comprehensive plan to dispose of them. Now, panels purchased under those programs are nearing the end of their typical 25-to-30-year life cycle.
Many are already winding up in landfills, where in some cases, they could potentially contaminate groundwater with toxic heavy metals such as lead, selenium and cadmium.
Sam Vanderhoof, a solar industry expert and chief executive of Recycle PV Solar, says that only 1 in 10 panels are actually recycled, according to estimates drawn from International Renewable Energy Agency data on decommissioned panels and from industry leaders.
The looming challenge over how to handle truckloads of waste, some of it contaminated, illustrates how cutting-edge environmental policy can create unforeseen problems down the road.
“The industry is supposed to be green,” Vanderhoof said. “But in reality, it’s all about the money.”
What's all this "unforeseen problems" crap?
Wasn't it perfectly obvious from Day 1 for anyone who chose to look?
One interesting passtime is to:
I picked a wind farm in the US and discovered than an area equal to eight times that of Texas would be required to supply the energy required. Sounds reasonable.
The next problem to look at is to build in an expected lifetime then schedule the replacement of all those turbines or panels so that you can have them all replaced in that timescale. You discover that many wind turbines need to be built and dismantled every day for ever.
Then we have the storage issue ...
So much for life cycle cost management: from development, maintenance, through disposal.
I used to install photovoltaic panels in the UK. We knew it was a boondoggle fairly quickly.
Solar thermal panel and tubes however, are really good, but they didn't have the cachet or the subsidies so only preparedness types and thinking greens went for them.
These idiots don't think. It's a colossal rip off.
So many man made things are "great" out of the gate, but no plan for end of life cycle.
I've heard the same thing about those spirally glass tube light bulbs making their way to landfills and releasing the toxin in them. And K-Cups too for that matter, not necessarily as toxic but millions of them in landfills instead of being recycled.
How did I know this already 20-some years ago.
Because you are a logical, practical thinker. Too few exist in CA leadership
If only people knew. Useless eyesores and bird killers.
Are they not recyclable?
Meh...it all came out of the ground. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The tedlar will probably take the longest to break down... the rest: glass, silicon 'wafers', silver buss bars and grid, and aluminum frame will all be gone in 100 years. Fiberglass blades will most likely also be gone by then too. The blades are usually woodcore, fiberglass (silica/glass fibers) and vinyl or polyester plastics...will rot to hell like your neighbor's boat on his front lawn he turned into a planter. It'll all turn to dust and return the the earth where it originally came from.
Ultra Violet light is a wonderful thing. UV light and Oxidation breaks down almost everything.