this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2026
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This is bordering on miss information. It's a tiny fraction of resources compared to what we are currently extracting to produce energy and discarded solar panels are pretty safe (unless it's American solar panels that sometimes contain heavy metals like cadmium).
And the neoliberal answer to solar panels being economically non-recycleable is to increase the cost to putting them in landfills until they are economically recyclable. Even if it's just grinding them into dust to use as a filler in concrete or something.
edit, some rough calculations:
20kg of solar panels produce about as much electricity as 5 tons of coal.
Nothing I said is bordering on “miss information”. It’s all true.
If we were serious about “net zero” we’d be all in on nuclear. It’s the only way to it.
Saying the panels would end up in landfills is absolutely misinformation.
Like 95% of a solar panel is glass, aluminum, or silicon. I terms of recycling, those are some of the most recyclable materials.
If your goal is net zero than solar and batteries is it because its theoretically possible to reach a point where all new panels and batteries are produced from materials recycled out of old panels and batteries.
It absolutely isn't, because that's literally where they already end up.
Fantastic! They still end up in landfill though, because like I said, economically it's not viable to recycle them. It costs more money to recycle a solar panel than it does to buy a new one.
It's definitely not, even theoretically. Batteries definitely aren't infinitely recyclable.
Nope, the only real way to go net zero is nuclear.