(09-08-2021, 02:29 PM)jagibelieve Wrote:

(09-07-2021, 07:09 PM)mikesez Wrote: A used up solar panel in the landfill has absolutely no impact on climate change.  Neither good nor bad.

Wrong... as usual.

What does it take to build a solar panel?  What is it made of?  How much petroleum goes into it?  What do those materials do to the earth that they are discarded in?

What about the batteries required to store the DC power from solar panels?  Do you just discard lead/acid or lithium batteries in a landfill?  How are those batteries made?

Explain how harvesting and manufacturing the materials for those two products (solar panels and batteries) is not damaging to the climate.  Explain how discarding those materials is not damaging to the climate.

Wrong.. as usual.
Of course it could take fossil fuels to create new solar panels, depending on the place they are made. Many factories use their own panels to power their process. There are costs in the mining process as well. Regardless, if properly installed, those panels will offset that initial input by a large factor.

As for batteries, there are no batteries in my home setup.

Discarding materials only harms the climate in terms of the carbon emissions of the garbage truck.  Once it's buried, that panel won't do anything to the atmosphere.

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