Category:Solar Energy
<addthis />
Solar Power News
- Solar Power, Sun Powered
Keeping up with Solar Power
Via Forbes / May 2018
Solar Panels Life Cycle & Recycling
- Solar panels often contain lead, cadmium, and other toxic chemicals (e-waste) that cannot be removed without breaking apart the entire panel. For this reason, the whole solar panel is considered hazardous by many experts and governments.
- “Approximately 90% of most PV modules are made up of glass,” notes San Jose State environmental studies professor Dustin Mulvaney. “However, this glass often cannot be recycled as float glass due to impurities. Common problematic impurities in glass include plastics, lead, cadmium and antimony.”
- Researchers with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) undertook a study for U.S. solar-owning utilities to plan for end-of-life and concluded that solar panel “disposal in “regular landfills [is] not recommended in case modules break and toxic materials leach into the soil” and so “disposal is potentially a major issue.”
IRENA Finding: “If fully injected back into the economy, the value of the recovered material [from used solar panels] could exceed USD 15 billion by 2050.”
- Perhaps the biggest problem with solar panel waste is that there is so much of it. All of that waste creates a large quantity of material to track, which in turn requires requires coordinated, overlapping, and different responses at the international, national, state, and local levels.
- The first step is a fee on solar panel purchases to make sure that the cost of safely removing, recycling or storing solar panel waste is internalized into the price of solar panels and not externalized... a 'decommissioning fund'.
- In July 2018, Washington became the first U.S. state to require manufacturers selling solar panels to have a plan to recycle.
- If the industry responds with foresight, it could end up sparking clean innovation including “developing PV modules without hazardous inputs and recycled rare metals." And that's something everyone can get powered up about.
··············································································
At the Forefront of Solar Energy: Manufacturing & Production in China
China reaches its solar energy installation target for 2020, reaffirming its position as largest producer of solar power on earth
China added 10.52 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity to its national total over the course of July 2017, in addition to the 24.4 GW of capacity that was installed over the first six months of the year. The country is already the biggest producer of solar energy in the world, and that doesn’t seem likely to change any time soon.
In the last two months, China has added 24.02 GW of solar capacity. To put that into context, figures from earlier this year put Australia’s total capacity at around 6GW, a figure that’s projected to double by 2020. The US currently has a total capacity of 44.7 GW.
China has already cleared its goal of reaching a capacity of 105 GW by the end of 2020. The country has now attained 112.34 GW, and as such has tweaked its forecast for 2017, now predicting that this year’s installations will total between 40 and 45 GW when all is said and done.
·······················································································
The World Doubled Its Solar Power Capacity in 2016
○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○
Subcategories
This category has the following 9 subcategories, out of 9 total.
E
G
I
R
S
T
Pages in category "Solar Energy"
The following 114 pages are in this category, out of 114 total.
3
A
C
- California out in front in a Green future
- Campaign Finance System Reform
- Carbon Brief
- Climate Change - Global Warming Keyword-Terms
- Climate Change Denier Talking Points -- and Rebuttals
- Climate Change Summit Paris
- Climate Desk
- Climate Law Blog @Columbia Law School
- Climate migration
- Climate News
- Climate News Events Archive ... 1970 to Today
- Climate Plans Enforcement - Resources
- Climate Problems, Climate Solutions
- Cochin International Airport
D
E
- Each of us can make a positive difference
- Earth and Space, Politics
- Earth Day 2020
- Earth Day Memories on the 50th Anniversary
- Earth from NASA
- Earth Science
- Earth Science Eco-Fields
- Earth Science Research from Space
- Earth Science Vital Signs
- EarthTime
- EBikes 360
- Eco-nomics
- Election System Reform
- Energy Storage - Batteries and Grid
- Environmental full-cost accounting
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Environmental Rules Rolled Back
- ESA Living Planet Announcement - May 2022
- Ethics and Climate Change
- European Union Green Deal - Fit for 55
- EV Corridors Electric Vehicles Zero Emission Vehicles
- ExxonMobil and US House Science Committee v US Attorneys General and Environmental Groups
G
- Generation Green
- Glasgow Climate Summit - Pledges, Promises, Declarations - What's Next Up
- Global Climate Action Summit
- Global Risks Report
- Going Green
- Going Green: Texas v. Pennsylvania
- Green Bank in Maryland - and More
- Green Marketing
- Green New Deal
- Green Party
- Green Politics 360
- Green Stories of the Day
- Green Stories of the Day - GreenPolicy360 Archive
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2013
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2014
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2015
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2016
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2017
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2018
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2019
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2020
- GreenPolicy360 Archive Highlights 2023
- GreenPolicy360 Highlights
- Growth of Photovoltaics
L
M
O
P
S
- San Francisco, CA Resolution Urging Nationwide Mobilization of Renewable Energy Resources
- Santa Anna, CA No Fee Solar Permits
- Sea-Level Rise
- Seattle University, WA Solar Power Project
- Solar Energy and Consumer Affairs
- Solar Power for Electric Vehicles
- Solar Power Plants in the Mojave Desert
- Solarsiedlung Solar Village
- Space Solar Energy
- Stats - Green Research & Science
- Student Climate Strike-March 15, 2019
- Sunnyvale, CA Solar Heating Code
T
Media in category "Solar Energy"
The following 14 files are in this category, out of 763 total.
(previous page) (next page)- 2020 record temperatures.png 800 × 502; 358 KB
- 3-15-2016 10-49-38 AM.png 702 × 862; 396 KB
- 7-20-2020 GreenPolicy360 RT No.2.jpg 591 × 510; 125 KB
- A Brief History of the Future - 2s.jpg 448 × 309; 70 KB
- A Planet Citizen View.png 799 × 1,241; 1.64 MB
- A scorching year, what about the 360 warming data.jpg 600 × 706; 106 KB
- About website of The Invading Sea.png 800 × 343; 126 KB
- Acceptance on behalf of the United States of America.png 448 × 306; 62 KB
- Act now for a livable future.png 501 × 275; 272 KB
- Acting on Climate Change.png 402 × 139; 109 KB
- Acting to make a positive difference - in St Petersburg Florida.png 600 × 723; 645 KB
- Ag production and GHG emissions.jpg 680 × 510; 33 KB
- Against the Tide - Cover - by Cornelia Dean.jpg 308 × 475; 57 KB
- Air pollution moves globally.png 620 × 412; 256 KB