New Study: Solar Panel Owners Sitting On A Pile Of Hazardous Lead And Cadmium

Dubbed as a clean source of energy, new research findings are showing that home and property owners producing clean, CO2-electricity may, in fact, find themselves sitting on a pile of hazardous waste once the module lifetime expires.

In many countries, it is illegal to simply discard hazardous materials into the household garbage, and so many solar energy module operators may find themselves paying high fees for hazardous waste disposal, while in third world countries the hazardous modules will simply end up being discarded onto the landscape.

“Serious environmental consequences”

According to the online Welt here, a new study commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Economics dubbed: “Release of Hazardous Material from Photovoltaic Modules,” found “serious environmental consequences” from solar modules. Formerly it was claimed that solar modules posed no real danger to the environment.

Today that appears to have been wishful thinking.

Washed out by rain

Welt reports that researchers in Stuttgart checked if harmful products could be transported from the modules to the environment by water. Welt writes:

The latest findings are another major blow to an industry that has been reeling from high costs, inefficiency, cheap imports and declining overall popularity. Now it is turning out to be a real polluter.

Welt writes that it will be necessary to recycle 100% of all modules but that it will be impossible to ensure that no modules wind up in regular household refuse.

Poor countries victims again

Though 100% recycling may be almost achievable in rich, industrial countries, Welt cites the experts who say there is the high likelihood the modules simply will end up littering the landscape in poor countries. Poor countries, often located in sunny equatorial regions, face the potential of being blanketed by vast swaths of hazardous material.

11,000 tons of lead, 800 tons of cadmium

The researchers say that currently there are about 3700 square kilometers of solar modules installed globally and estimate that as of 2016 the modules contained 11,000 tons of lead and 800 tons of cadmium, reports Welt, citing the study.

Welt adds that the EU banned the use of toxic heavy metals and solder by the electrical industry, but the solar industry was exempted on the behest of the solar lobby. The solar industry needs to be included in the ban as well, the experts say. so that the global spread of heavy toxic metals can be curbed.

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