Martha Walden
Modern solar panels convert sunshine into electricity more and more efficiently as their costs have plunged during the last forty years. The up-front price tag for a full-on rooftop system is still hefty, but it typically pays for itself in ten to fifteen years. That leaves about an equal number of years of free electricity while the panels are still under warranty. Overall, the cost is eight to ten cents per kW, so no wonder for-profit utilities hate them. Not everyone has a roof suitable for solar, but everyone else – from liberals to right-wingers – are catching on to the beauty of rooftop arrays. (Solar farms are not nearly as popular, especially in the collective backyard.)
This is just the beginning. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) forecasts a 21 percent increase of solar capacity each year from now until 2027 in the US. The Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) tax credit of 30 percent should help lubricate the wheels of this trend. I don’t know the SEIA’s prediction for the years after 2027, but a similar rosiness seems likely, especially since the IRA keeps going through 2031.
Okay, that’s enough of that. Now for the bad news. Today’s silent arrays of sun-spangled glass and metal mini power generators will become tomorrow’s mountains of trash and waste unless someone figures out how to make recycling them cheaper than dumping them. In the US 90 percent of retired solar panels end up in the dump, and even though we US-ers think of ourselves as world champions when it comes to disposal, the score isn’t much better elsewhere. In the EU, for instance, recyclers salvage only the frame plus glass that is not separated from other materials, so it’s very low-grade. The rest is incinerated. (Yikes!)
Worldwide, retired solar panels could amount to 80 million metric tons by 2050. That would be a sad and familiar pity, considering that recycling aluminum uses 95 percent less energy than making virgin aluminum. No rare metals are used in solar panels, but the silicon, indium, tellurium and other minor metals are worth retrieving. And then there’s the carbon footprint. Each recycled panel means 97 fewer pounds of CO2 than tossing it and making a new one from scratch. Ninety-seven multiplied by millions and millions really adds up. Nevertheless, toss and re-make is capitalism’s preferred modus operandi as long as supplies of raw materials last – not to mention civilization.
The problem is simple. Solid waste landfills typically charge a buck or two per solar panel, maybe five if the landfill is getting finicky and classifies solar panels as hazardous waste. Meanwhile, one of the few companies that bothers to recycle them charges $18, using state-of-the-art recycling techniques that salvage 92 percent of the materials. Only five recycling companies take on solar panels in the entire country. Only one operates in California. The risk of toxic leaching from solar panels has been rated low by the International Energy Agency. Other parties are more concerned. Whether they’re toxic or not, they shouldn’t be wasted.
The humane ethic of using renewable and abundant energy contrasts with capitalism’s cold principle of using scarcity to create value. Everything is renewable if we recycle it. Past generations had an instinctive aversion to waste. It seems to have skipped the present generation, but is surely key to the future.