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Originally Posted by Changing City
They usually last longer. So still worth considering.
There are already some recycling programs, and as more panels reach the end of their life there will be more incentive for companies to develop better systems for extracting and recycling materials. New designs of panels are being developed that use less toxic materials.
A world map from 2016 is pretty useless. A fair amount of BC has sufficient radiation to make solar viable, as you can see here. New designs are making panels more efficient (and cheaper), and that'll only improve the economics. |
Well, if you want to be more green, I guess. There's not going to be many takers unless you subsidize it, and there are better things to subsidize.
In 2016, Zeihan was saying on the red was economically worth it, orange is maybe worth it ecologically, and yellow is DOA.
Also, PV Solar has mostly gotten cheaper, not more efficient, as single-junction cells max out at 33% (you can get more efficient, but by adding more and more layers to get all the different wavelengths, which increases costs.)
Solar Cells are inherently difficult to recycle- and recycling itself is already iffy for things we
do have a lot of (like e-waste, which is most comparable to solar cells)- only 17% of e-waste was recycled in 2020, and a lot of that was not really recycled...properly.
No reason to increase the amount of solar panel waste if it's already marginal anyways.
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