Mastodawn

Solar panel waste is not something you need to concern yourself with. Even if people are upgrading panels after 10 years this waste is insignificant compared to sooooooooo many things. Recycling materials in solar panels is probably a good idea, but it's not something to stop you getting panels today.

If waste is a concern for you, you should be switching to solar panels since they produce so little waste compared to other energies like coal. Like hundreds of times less. You probably should be caring more about, tires, mattresses, single use plastics, vapes, the packaging everything comes before solar panels.

(This brought to you by ABC fearmongering)

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Jon F 1d ago

@xssfox I think a better way of looking at it is that we need every solar panel to work at maximum efficiency and longevity to increase the rate of fossil fuel retirement. Currently, if you want to upgrade your rooftop solar, or if just one panel develops a fault, it's likely ALL the panels will go to waste. There are panels only a few years into their 20 year lifespan being buried. The more we do that, the longer the transition will take.

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1.3.6.1.4.1.61513 1d ago

@AvonVilla will we really ever be bottlenecked on panels though?

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Jon F

@xssfox Depends on how big you want the bottle to be. The current growth in renewables is roughly equivalent to the increase in energy demand created by economic/population growth and development. AI will make energy demand worse. Fossil fuel use is at best stable, emissions are STILL rising. We're supposed to be reducing emissions, so arguably we are in a bottleneck right now.

I agree with your sentiment that FF industry gaslighting is despicable.