California went big on rooftop solar. Now that’s a problem for landfills

Similar sentiments have been showing up in many venues lately. I suspect this is an oil company campaign aimed at damaging renewables. We saw a similar campaign about how “bad” wind turbine blades are for birds, and also that disposing the blades was <i>such</i> a “big” problem.<p>Every energy source has consequences. We need to pick the ones that are less bad. Having a pile of waste in landfills seems infinitely better than roasting the whole planet to the point of it being unlivable by humans.

&gt; <i>Beginning in 2006 [...]. Now, panels purchased under those programs are nearing the end of their typical 25-to-30-year life cycle.</i><p>I know this feels like pedantic nitpickery, but 2022 - 2006 = 16 years. That&#x27;s 53%-64% of the 25-30 year lifecycle. Characterizing that as &quot;nearing the end&quot; feels like manufacturing urgency that doesn&#x27;t yet exist.<p>Having said that, we appear to have 9-14 years to get our elected representatives into gear to write some legislation that requires recycling for all this, before the bulk of the early subsidized installs start heading to landfills. That&#x27;s not forever (especially where government is concerned), but that&#x27;s definitely quite a bit of runway.

What percentage of landfill capacity is expected to be filled with solar panels?

25y life expectancy is a lie. I&#x27;ve seen it with my own panels which were installed by the former owner. Nobody checks if these things are still working correctly.<p>In my case after just 4y every panel was subpar And 2 of 12 were simply so bad that the bypasses kicked in. In turn that caused the input voltage to be too low when it was hot and the internal resistance went up, which results in a shutdown inverter.<p>Really, how often does this happen without people realizing? I&#x27;ve checked with a neighbour, he never looked at it, guess what, same deal!?

It’s also a problem for housing affordability. Even ADUs require solar now.<p>Making it more expensive to build housing in California at a time like this is a bad move, and I doubt the benefits of solar outweigh it.

Why don&#x27;t we construct panels that can be repurposed as building panels to build homes after they don&#x27;t produce electricity?

uncertain what 12ft.io is - it redirects to latimes:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.latimes.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;story&#x2F;2022-07-14&#x2F;california-rooftop-solar-pv-panels-recycling-danger" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.latimes.com&#x2F;business&#x2F;story&#x2F;2022-07-14&#x2F;california...</a><p>That said, I have friends with old panels, and they are happily generating electricity and reducing PG&amp;E bills.<p>So although there might be a problem with older panels, I expect there are also problems with old power plant generators, aged oil tankeer and gas station equipment ending up in landfills too.

The article suggests that the problem is not about California - but the times we live in (health, housing, etc.)<p>“The industry is supposed to be green,” Vanderhoof said. “But in reality, it’s all about the money.”

I&#x27;m surprised CA didn&#x27;t do a recycling program along with all their tax rebates for solar.

Thx for posting the 12ft.io link to the content,

A glimpse of the future.

Url changed from <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;12ft.io&#x2F;proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fbusiness%2Fstory%2F2022-07-14%2Fcalifornia-rooftop-solar-pv-panels-recycling-danger" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;12ft.io&#x2F;proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fbusi...</a>, which points to this.