what are the wastes and by-products of solar panels on homes and buisness.?
The waste products are the panels themselves as they age. Their lifespan is 10-25 years, depending on the panel, and any damage it receives during its lifetime.
Most of the products in the panels can be recycled. There are getting to be more plastics and vinyl used in the manufacture of the panels. Sometimes the plastics and vinyls are not easy to get recycled.
The biggest waste product however would be if the solar panels are used to generate electricity, and not just warm/hot water. If the panels generate electric, batteries are used to store the power in. The batteries are of course highly toxic. The batteries can also be recycled. They are filled with lead, and acid. Very bad for the environment if just dumped somewhere.
Passive solar…just heats water up in the solar panels (no electric produced)
Active Solar…produces electricity which is stored in multiple batteries (deep cycle marine batteries usually).
~Garnet
Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years
none
References :
Comment by pony23 — December 13, 2009 @ 11:46 pm
A shadow, that’s all.
References :
Comment by panurge2 — December 13, 2009 @ 11:55 pm
The waste products are the panels themselves as they age. Their lifespan is 10-25 years, depending on the panel, and any damage it receives during its lifetime.
Most of the products in the panels can be recycled. There are getting to be more plastics and vinyl used in the manufacture of the panels. Sometimes the plastics and vinyls are not easy to get recycled.
The biggest waste product however would be if the solar panels are used to generate electricity, and not just warm/hot water. If the panels generate electric, batteries are used to store the power in. The batteries are of course highly toxic. The batteries can also be recycled. They are filled with lead, and acid. Very bad for the environment if just dumped somewhere.
Passive solar…just heats water up in the solar panels (no electric produced)
Active Solar…produces electricity which is stored in multiple batteries (deep cycle marine batteries usually).
~Garnet
Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years
References :
Comment by Bohemian_Garnet_Permaculturalist — December 14, 2009 @ 12:30 am