Dangerous Materials In Solar Panels

Solar power has surged in popularity over the past decade.

Dangerous materials in solar panels.

These are highly specialized substances u sed to manufacture solar cells. In 2009 only 30 000 homeowners in the united states had solar panels. Little do people know that solar energy systems can be dangerous to their health due to the emf s emitted. Just one of scores of health impacts can be increased cancer risk.

Cadmium telluride cdte and copper indium gallium deselenide cigs are not available at retail establishments. The solar pv industry has the potential to provide enormous environmental benefits according to the silicon valley toxics report but the toxic materials contained in solar panels will. They also contain lead cadmium and other toxic even carcinogenic chemicals that cannot be removed without breaking apart the entire panel. The most hazardous material in silicon photovoltaics by comparison is lead.

Approximately 90 of most pv modules are made up of glass. Emf stands for manmade electromagnetic field s such as produce unnatural electric magnetic or rf microwave radiation in the environment. In 2016 that number hit 1 million. The large majority of panels used in installations are safe silicon based panels.

In addition they are finite and the use of rare earth minerals is controversial even if the goals are not. The most commonly utilized solar technologies use inert materials found at every building site including silicon glass aluminum frame and copper wiring. In 2013 400 000 homes had solar panels thanks mostly to the cost of solar panels dropping over 60 since 2010. However if you re installing thin film technology there are additional toxic materials contained in the thin film panels itself such as cadmium telluride and copper indium selenide.

Solar panels often contain lead cadmium and other toxic chemicals that cannot be removed without breaking apart the entire panel. Leaching potential test results show that such panels have a leaching potential of approximately 4 grams of lead per kilowatt installed compared to approximately 23 grams of cadmium per kilowatt installed for cdte panels. Worse rainwater can wash many of these toxics out of the fragments of solar modules over time.