Closer look: The life cycle, benefits and costs of solar panels Image By EPN Staff Recent advances in solar technology have driven down the cost of panels while increasing efficiency. These same innovations are also creating new environmental challenges that raise questions about the costs and benefits of expanding solar and underscore the tradeoffs that factor into every energy policy decision. Nations with lax environmental standards are manufacturing millions of new panels each year, using high-energy processes involving hazardous materials and toxic chemicals. This influx of cheap panels threatens to flood landfills with un-recyclable old panels, tossed before their anticipated lifespan. Why it matters Manufacturing and waste-management processes are drawing increasing attention as solar adoption expands across the U.S. Non-standardized manufacturing processes have created confusion around which solar panels are considered hazardous waste, which has complicated recycling efforts, according to regulators in the U.S. and elsewhere. And while supporters of solar tout data showing solar provides a positive return on the energy used for production within one to four years of use, they also acknowledge the growing impacts at landfills, as well as recycling facility underutilization and insufficient incentives to promote reuse. The bigger picture One of the key concerns, as outlined by a Harvard Business Review analysis, is lack of attention to environmental impacts of solar, which could prove to be 50 times more than the industry is projecting. “To be sure, this is not the story one gets from official industry and government sources…,” the Harvard scholars wrote. “Of all sectors, sustainable technology can least afford to be shortsighted about the waste it creates.” China makes more solar panels than any other nation, with 80% of the world’s production. However, China’s notoriously lax regulation has raised environmental concerns about the tradeoff of increasingly buying Chinese panels. China permits on average two new coal plants per week and has relied almost exclusively on fossil fuels to power its solar panel manufacturing industry. The process of manufacturing solar panels requires melting silica ores at 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, along with the use of hazardous materials like sulfuric acid and phosphine gas. Slave labor, government funding and laissez-faire environmental standards in China depressed the heavily regulated U.S. solar industry for much of the last decade. 2024 was a landmark year for America’s solar industry as the first domestic manufacturer in years began production again. Deeper context Harvard concluded that landfills in America or overseas are likely to see a deluge of solar panels, as cheap and more efficient Chinese panels flood the market, incentivizing current solar users to toss less efficient panels. MIT reported the U.S. would have 8 million metric tons of solar panels in need of recycling by 2030 and 80 million tons by 2050. Recycling these panels requires highly specialized facilities, and the National Renewable Energy Lab estimates the U.S. is recycling less than 10% of solar waste annually. Additional complications The developing world is currently bearing the cost of the First World’s solar ambitions. Half of the world’s polysilicon – the main ingredient in solar panels – is made in Xinjiang, where Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities make the material under slave conditions, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. While international communities may see the immediate consequences of solar panel production, the American market can’t avoid the high cost of disposal once the panels are on our shores. Harvard predicts that discarded units will outweigh new panels by 2.56 times in 2035, forcing skyrocketing disposal costs to be built into the product’s price.
