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Not questioning the right to do it. ...questioning the wisdom. How is it that this is OK with TreeHuggers, but landfills, mines and oil wells aren't? Those at least can be made in such a way to be compatible with habitat preservation.....What do you do with 10 sq mi of dead PV cells in 25 yrs?
Not questioning the right to do it. ...questioning the wisdom. How is it that this is OK with TreeHuggers, but landfills, mines and oil wells aren't? Those at least can be made in such a way to be compatible with habitat preservation.....What do you do with 10 sq mi of dead PV cells in 25 yrs?
If the PV is gone in ten years the trees will regrow. Essentially everything East of the Mississippi is second or third growth anyway. Trees are a renewable resource.
Not only will the trees regrow, you'd have to be extremely proactive to KEEP them from growing.
"What do you do with 10 sq mi of dead PV cells in 25 yrs?"
Given each current panel uses about 2/3oz of silver in them, 1.8 million panels would be worth close to 30 million bucks (assuming a modest price of silver at 25/oz) just in silver.....not to mention the scrap value of aluminum in the frames, and whatever metal is used for the racking.
And those panels won't be 'dead' in 25yrs.....they will likely still produce at 70-80% of rated output. More than likely, panel output will be so improved by then, (given current trend) they will simply use the existing site to replace panels with far cheaper, higher output versions and keep on trucking.
Everybody wants clean power.....but nobody wants it in their backyard.
Good for you, if it works for you. ...Big difference between a small, unobtrusive, private installation that has minimal impact on habitat vs wiping out 10 sq mi of contiguous habitat for non-existent environmental benefit.
You've apparently made the decision to use solar at the expense of minimizing power needs and putting up with the occasional cloudy day....But commercial installations still need to be backed up by stand-by, conventional power plants, negating any "carbon savings" for the most part.
In regards out-put & lifetime-- PV installations in areas other than the Sun Belt only average 30% of boiler plate spec capacity-- so they' deteriorate to 80% of 30%, or only 24% in the end. ...Expense of re-claiming silver may not be worth it...And what about all the toxic inclusion in the cells that will need to be dealt with? https://sciencing.com/toxic-chemical...els-18393.html https://news.nationalgeographic.com/...ility-ranking/
But no biggy-- the investors have it all planned out-- bankruptcy as soon as the govt subsidies run out-- abandon the site to let the taxpayers deal with it.
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