So much for ecology: solar panels can pollute the environment more than other gadgets

It would seem that solar panels should be more environmentally friendly than using traditional methods.

However, there are some nuances here, for example, such panels after the end of their use period without proper processing cancause significant harm to the environment, but the process of disposing of such panels has proven to be difficult and expensive, which is why not everyone takes up the task, reports"Kommersant".Discuss

In California, solar panels have been used for more than 20 years to generate electricity, and given that their service life is 25-30 years, they may soon face the problem of their disposal.

But not “California United”. The International Renewable Energy Agency predicts that by 2050 the volume of spent solar panels will reach 78 million tons in the worst case.

Solar panels contain a lot of toxic heavymetals, including lead, selenium and cadmium, so if not recycled properly, used panels can be more damaging to the environment than many other devices that are also cheaper to recycle.

Well, let's imagine that there is money for recycling, but it getsAnd another problem is that it is not economically profitable: the panel is used to getmaterials cost 2-4 dollars, and the processing itself, according to the American National Renewable Energy Laboratory, costs 20-30 dollars.