Thread by @shellenberger

People think solar panels are good for the environment but they’re not. They’re made with toxic heavy metals and aren’t recycled. Most are made with coal in China and produce produce 3x more CO2 than IPCC thought. And they require 300-600x more land than other energy sources. https://t.co/7gmynXBQTo

It’s always been possible to recycle solar panels but it will always be cheaper to buy raw materials to make new ones and dump the old ones in landfills or on poor African nations. That’s why all of the solar panel makers oppose any requirement that they recycle.

Every few years the media ask whether there’s some technical fix to the fact that solar requires 300-600x more land than other energy sources and of course there isn’t. You can’t make sunlight more energy dense. See for yourself:

https://t.co/N3WBX4TaCrenvironmentalprogress.org/power-density-…

Most of what people think about the environment is wrong. They project secular religious ideas of harmony onto a physical reality. In truth, the energy density of the fuel, or “flow” (eg, sunlight) determines the environmental impact. It’s basic physics.

environmentalprogress.org/power-density-…

Because sunlight is energy dilute you have to spread solar collectors (panels) across 300-600x more land, use hundreds of times more materials, and produce hundreds of times more waste.

The reason people must fear-monger about the environment, and demonize truth tellers, is to distract everyone from fundamental physical realities. Here’s an overview of what they are:

environmentalprogress.org/the-case-again…

These fundamental physical realities have required that China use “forced labor,” a euphemism to avoid using the s word, to make solar panels. It’s unconscionable that we continue to import solar panels from China, given what we know.