Solar Panels Again

..... I got my solar panels 3 years ago, been cost effective and the way ahead, so I thought

But solar panels produce tons of toxic waste

Solar Panels Produce Tons of Toxic Waste—Literally | Bill Wirtz

 

Like almost everything we as consumers purchase.......
Most see "shiny new" without a thought to the manufacturing cost to the enviroment

Still, I feel better about buying solar panels than biscuits

 

I like the taste of biscuits better.
Tim Tams, followed by Chocolate Royals.

 

Lots of other options for large scale renewables but right wingers are all anti them - to enamoured with businesses of fossil fuels.

 

Questions - which are relevant to me right now about to start a build, and contemplating cost of Solar versus existing Electricity;
If I was to spend say: $10k (round figures for sake of argument) on solar panels for the entire house for elec and gas hot water;
1.How long would it take to recoup that cost to equalise it with the same cost of using normal electricity supply?
2. What are the credit rates these days for Solar - I heard they had been significantly decreased?
3. What is the likely Government rebate on that cost - I heard the rebates had been significantly reduced as well?
$. Given all of the above; is it even still worth it?

 

• The problem of solar panel disposal “will explode with full force in two or three decades and wreck the environment” because it “is a huge amount of waste and they are not easy to recycle.”
  “The reality is that there is a problem now, and it’s only going to get larger, expanding as rapidly as the PV industry expanded 10 years ago.”
• “Contrary to previous assumptions, pollutants such as lead or carcinogenic cadmium can be almost completely washed out of the fragments of solar modules over a period of several months, for example by rainwater.”

Were these statements made by the right-wing Heritage Foundation? Koch-funded global warming deniers? The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal?

None of the above. Rather, the quotes come from a senior Chinese solar official, a 40-year veteran of the U.S. solar industry, and research scientists with the German Stuttgart Institute for Photovoltaics.

link

Apparently Solar panels create 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than do nuclear power plants. Solar panels contain lead, cadmium, and other toxic chemicals that cannot be removed without breaking apart the entire panel.

There's never any easy answer

 

Much nicer than silicon wafers.

Was discussing the week-long power outage in northern Sydney earlier today.

Some people in our group fared better than others - no power but used the inverter to get the instantaneous hws and some other appliances to work, another had solar but no storage and the third had zip (capped off with the other half being away for work & returned when the power was restored, flicked the breaker and said "was that all?").

 

I still need a lot of convincing on solar. The materials needed for this energy source are extraordinary.

 

Our house will have a north-facing side of the roof with no high trees to block direct sun, but given your description; the initial installation costs makes it seem like there are too many ifs and buts for both solar and batteries to make it worth the bother to save dollars then?

 

Do not underestimate human ingenuity and the emergence of technology when required:

Solar Panel Recycling Melbourne | Recycle Solar PV Sydney Ecoactiv

Recycling: A Solar Panel's Life after Death | GreenMatch

As for cost ... I had a 6.6 system recently put on one of my holiday rentals (that I pay the power for) - cost $3,800 installed and connected - feed-in rate at 21c ... calcs say it should pay for itself in 1.5-2 years ... leaving another 20-odd years of profit

 

Not as high as you might think ... Solar, wind and nuclear have 'amazingly low' carbon footprints, study finds | RenewEconomy

Especially if you factor in all the elements of mining coal - including the release of Methane, which is 30 time more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon emitted by burning fossil fuels ... Fossil Fuel Production Emits More Methane Than Previously Thought, NOAA Says

 

We have a really serious investment in solar, with 37 x panels in two arrays (one array has two strings), solar HWS with two panels, lithium battery (had lead acid initially), ...

Our home is a large home on acreage. We have a pool, our own effluent plant, home automation, ... Our daily power consumption is high at 29 kWh.

I have written about our setup in another thread. Our aim was increase our power reliability (eg security cameras don’t work well in blackouts) and to provide a UPS to all our electrical equipment (eg our file-server), and not for an investment payback per se (we were told initially that payback would be 3 years).

Our FIT is 51c/kWh (set until 2028) and we have had our full setup now for 5 years. Our saving on our power bill is about $3,800 per year. Based on our experience, we have another 5 years to go. So much for 3 years!!!!!

I too would be very skeptical about 6 years, more like 10.

Based on our experience, probably not but there are so many variables in this that it is impossible to give anyone a definitive answer.

Our setup is sophisticated (we charge our battery from one array of panels even when the grid is down) which made it expensive to install but, as I posted above, our main purpose for going solar was NOT financial.

 

Yes, I can see how having backup in case of blackouts would be a factor; but how would you go if there was a blackout, and the rain had been falling and cloudy for a few days beforehand?

 

I imagine that @kierank would have reduced his energy use on day one to conserve his battery, thus keeping the beer fridge cold for up to a week

 

Since having batteries, we have never been without power. There are a few reasons:

1. Every Sunday night, the system automatically charges the battery up to SoC of 100% from the grid.
2. If I get a warning that a bad storm is coming, I can manually charge the battery up to a SoC of 100% and leave it at that SoC until the grid goes down.
3. Even if the grid goes down, our setup continues to charge the battery from its panels (not a standard install).
4. When the grid is down, we do become more conservative with our power consumption as we don’t know when the grid will be back up.
5. Finally, a bit of luck.

A few years ago, we went for days (I can’t remember how many) with the grid down using the above approach and we always had power.

But we are not silly enough to believe that our system will 100% guarantee power in ALL situations but it so worked well so far.

 

Exactly.

And the fans running as it was bloody hot .

 

Assuming its true, why has everyone been pushing CO2 so hard for all this time then?

Sounds more promising for my scenario . How big is that rental you are quoting here? Our house is going to be ~29 squares.