It's now clear that it wasn't efficiency that made solar panels cheap. It was coal, China's heavy subsidies, & "slave" labor
- Panel efficiency grew just 3%
- China & solar industry contradicts itself on forced labor
- U.S. & E.U. may ban China solar
michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/china-made-s…
Solar panels degrade 2x faster than experts thought, new industry report finds
Report comes on heels of separate report which found rising *failure* rate
Could it be that solar panels are too flimsy & fragile to power major economies?
🧐
pv-tech.org/built-solar-as…
“1 in 3 manufacturers experienced safety failures relating to junction box defects, an increase from 1 in 5 last year… the majority of failures were prior to testing, straight from the box … + an increase in failure rate within the bills of material”
pv-tech.org/solar-module-f…
It’s almost as though solar panels aren’t really a primary energy at all and more akin to a disposable consumer product…
forbes.com/sites/michaels…
… to be dumped, in the future, on poor African nations…
nytimes.com/2019/05/12/cli…
“Solar panels have a lifespan of 20 to 30 years. Because it's not easy to dispose of the toxic metals inside the solar cells — there's an overall lack of oversight — it is often cheaper to discard them in landfills or send them to developing countries”
discovermagazine.com/environment/so…
Its so odd that the environmental justice movement is silent about toxic solar panel waste being dumped on poor nations, not to mention the forced labor used to make them
Maybe that’s because they have more urgent priorities, like killing nuclear plants?
thehill.com/policy/energy-…
Where are @GretaThunberg & @AOC when you need them?
Oh, right
forbes.com/sites/michaels…
It’s weird how the Jeff Bezos-owned @washingtonpost hasn’t covered the environmental impacts of toxic solar panel waste
Oh, right
entrepreneur.com/article/369901
I’m sure @JeffBezos will lead by example and make sure his rocket into space is powered by solar panels
cnn.com/2021/06/07/tec…
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