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Solar waste crisis
29 Jun, 2017 | Modified 4 Aug, 2017 | Views 13114
Solar panels create 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than do nuclear power plants.
By Jemin Desai and Mark Nelson
Last November, Japan’s Environment Ministry issued a stark warning: the amount of solar panel waste Japan produces every year will rise from 10,000 to 800,000 tons by 2040, and the nation has no plan for safely disposing of it.
Neither does California, a world leader in deploying solar panels. Only Europe requires solar panel makers to collect and dispose of solar waste at the end of their lives.
Solar panels create 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than do nuclear power plants.
A recent report found that it would take 19 years for Toshiba Environmental Solutions to finish recycling all of the solar waste Japan produced by 2020. By 2034, the annual waste production will be 70 - 80 times larger than that of 2020.
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