How ‘Green’ are Your Solar Panels Really? You May Want to Sit Down for This

By Pujanak (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Previously, I wrote about the terrible environmental impact of wind energy.  Today, it’s the unspoken environmental impact of solar panels.  Watt for watt, they’re far more environmentally damaging and produce more toxic waste than nuclear plants. 

Surprised?

I know, I know… this blows the “narrative.”   But I’m not about narrative, I’m about facts.  The environmental movement isn’t about facts, it’s only about narrative.  It’s meant to make you feel good, and to manipulate you into buying things.  And often, those things are subsidized by the government, based on cronyism that makes rich, connected people richer.  In other words, it’s a scam. 

According to Legal Insurrection, “it appears that solar panels create 300 times more toxic waste per unit of electricity generated than nuclear power plants.”

The report found that solar panels use heavy metals, including lead, chromium and cadmium, which can harm the environment. The hazards of nuclear waste are well known and can be planned for, but very little has been done to mitigate solar waste issues.

“The problem with waste from solar is that it isn’t handled as well as nuclear waste,” Dr. Jeff Terry, a professor of nuclear physics involved in energy research at the Illinois Institute of Technology, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “There are two types of waste from solar. Waste from the manufacturing scene and waste from the solar panel after it has gone through its useful life. There are materials in those that if they leached out, it wouldn’t be good.”

The report found that solar panels use heavy metals, including lead, chromium and cadmium, which can harm the environment. The hazards of nuclear waste are well known and can be planned for, but very little has been done to mitigate solar waste issues. “The problem with waste from solar is that it isn’t handled as well as nuclear waste,” Dr. Jeff Terry, a professor of nuclear physics involved in energy research at the Illinois Institute of Technology, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “There are two types of waste from solar. Waste from the manufacturing scene and waste from the solar panel after it has gone through its useful life. There are materials in those that if they leached out, it wouldn’t be good.”

And don’t forget the waste:

“A 2013 investigation by the Associated Press found that from 2007 to 2011, the manufacture of solar panels in California “produced 46.5 million pounds of sludge and contaminated water. Roughly 97 percent of it was taken to hazardous waste facilities throughout the state, but more than 1.4 million pounds were transported to nine other states.”

So if you thought that “going solar” was going to help the environment, you’ve been scammed, and someone is getting rich scamming you.  If you did it to impress your friends and to virtue-signal how environmentally conscious you are, you may have succeeded, because it’s unlikely that any of the friends who would be impressed, will be equally impressed by the actual facts.  They’re too in love with the narrative, and how it makes them feel.

h/t Legal Insurrection