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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longz who wrote (1449330)	3/28/2024 12:39:15 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1570343

Fox Station’s Hailstorm of Bullshit after Solar Panels Damaged – This is Not Cool (thinc.blog) Fox Station’s report above is likely to get wide coverage on the anti-clean energy social media networks. For the record, solar panels damaged in a storm will be replaced and the facility will get back to producing clean electricity. Big storms are getting bigger, but as we have seen in many examples, extreme weather is affecting every kind of power generation, from coal, to gas, to nuclear. Also worth noting that conventional electrical generating sources produce a steady stream of toxic byproducts, usually combustion effluent, when they are operating normally and as designed. We now have an emerging genre of anti-solar stories that focuses on supposed dangers of broken solar panels. This one, above, is from a Houston area Fox station. The idea rests on the mistaken claim that solar panels are full of toxic material just waiting to leak out and contaminate soil or groundwater. The fact that no such incident has ever been documented does not stop the fossil fuel media apparatus from repeating it. The Fox Station report above follows a time worn script. Describe the event, find an ignoramus with an uninformed take, – in fact, they make it clear that the “regular person” they interview has been a long time solar opponent – they fail to seek out any credible or knowledgeable person, (there are plenty in Houston area) and report it as “news”. Here’s some fact, from my resource page, sun101.org: One thing to understand is that modern solar panels are subjected to the so-called TCLP (T-Clip) test – Toxic Characteristic Leaching Procedure – which they must pass to be sold in the most important global markets. Health and Safety Impacts of Solar Photovoltaics – North Carolina State University: According to RCRA, the way to determine if a PV panel is classified as hazardous waste is the Toxic Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) test. This EPA test is designed to simulate landfill disposal and determine the risk of hazardous substances leaching out of the landfill. Multiple sources report that most modern PV panels (both crystalline silicon and cadmium telluride) pass the TCLP test. Some studies found that some older (1990s) crystalline silicon panels, and perhaps some newer crystalline silicon panels (specifics are not given about vintage of panels tested), do not pass the lead (Pb) leachate limits in the TCLP test. The test begins with the crushing of a panel into centimeter-sized pieces. The pieces are then mixed in an acid bath. After tumbling for eighteen hours, the fluid is tested for forty hazardous substances that all must be below specific threshold levels to pass the test. Research comparing TCLP conditions to conditions of damaged panels in the field found that simulated landfill conditions provide overly conservative estimates of leaching for field-damaged panels. Additionally, research in Japan has found no detectable Cd leaching from cracked CdTe panels when exposed to simulated acid rain. Solar panels are lined with Ethylene Vinyl Acetate, (EVA) similar to auto windshields, meaning when they are damaged, they do not shatter, but remain intact. Health and Safety Impacts again: To provide decades of corrosion-free operation, PV cells in PV panels are encapsulated from air and moisture between two layers of plastic. The encapsulation layers are protected on the top with a layer of tempered glass and on the backside with a polymer sheet. Frameless modules include a protective layer of glass on the rear of the panel, which may also be tempered. The plastic ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) commonly provides the cell encapsulation. For decades, this same material has been used between layers of tempered glass to give car windshields and hurricane windows their great strength. In the same way that a car windshield cracks but stays intact, the EVA layers in PV panels keep broken panels intact. Thus, a damaged module does not generally create small pieces of debris; instead, it largely remains together as one piece. Figure 4 from Health and Safety Impacts of Photovoltaic Solar, North Carolina State University