Source: LA Times
Originally posted in the LA Times on July 15, 2022 – Let us know your thoughts and suggestions on how this can be solved.
California has been a pioneer in pushing for rooftop solar power, building up the largest solar market in the U.S. More than 20 years and 1.3 million rooftops later, the bill is coming due.
Beginning in 2006, the state, focused on how to incentivize people to take up solar power, showered subsidies on homeowners who installed photovoltaic panels but had no comprehensive plan to dispose of them. Now, panels purchased under those programs are nearing the end of their typical 25-to-30-year life cycle.
For the record:
7:13 p.m. July 15, 2022An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the environmental risk posed by heavy metals in consumer photovoltaic arrays. This story has been edited to clarify that panels containing toxic materials are routed for disposal to landfills with extra safeguards against leakage, and to note that panels that contain cadmium and selenium are primarily used in utility-grade applications.
An earlier version of this article also misattributed a statement by Evelyn Butler, vice president of technical services at the Solar Energy Industries Assn., to Jen Bristol, the group’s senior director of communications. It also misidentified the group as the Solar Energy Industry Assn.
An earlier version of this article also failed to properly attribute quotes by Jigar Shah, director of the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, to their source, a 2020 interview with PV Magazine. The article has also been updated to reflect Shah’s current professional affiliation as well as that of Sam Vanderhoof.
An earlier version of this article also stated that 25 years was the life cycle of photovoltaic panels; the text has been updated to reflect that 25 to 30 years is the typical service life but not a fixed limit. Additionally, in a discussion of transporting photovoltaic panels to recycling or hazardous waste disposal facilities, the word “cells” has been changed to “panels” for accuracy.
Many are already winding up in landfills, where in some cases, they could potentially contaminate groundwater with toxic heavy metals such as lead, selenium and cadmium.
Sam Vanderhoof, a solar industry expert and chief executive of Recycle PV Solar, says that only 1 in 10 panels are actually recycled, according to estimates drawn from International Renewable Energy Agency data on decommissioned panels and from industry leaders.
The looming challenge over how to handle truckloads of waste, some of it contaminated, illustrates how cutting-edge environmental policy can create unforeseen problems down the road.
“The industry is supposed to be green,” Vanderhoof said. “But in reality, it’s all about the money.”
California came early to solar power. Small governmental rebates did little to bring down the price of solar panels or to encourage their adoption until 2006, when the California Public Utilities Commission formed the California Solar Initiative. That granted $3.3 billion in subsidies for installing solar panels on rooftops.
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