Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Even that is overestimated.

Solar panels create mountains of waste, much of it being disassembled by kids in Africa who then get sick because of it.

Solar production facility can have chemical spills that are comparable to Three Mile Island in terms of effect.

Compare a nuclear civilization against a solar one and you will see that waste management of nuclear is far smaller.

Overall less then 2000 people died from these 3 disasters and essentially all of them because Chernobyl that uses a technology that we don't use in the west.




"Solar panels create mountains of waste, much of it being disassembled by kids in Africa who then get sick because of it."

Source? Electronics associated with solar panels might be an issue but modern inverters use less and less toxic elements (and are definitely RoHS compliant).

As for solar panels themselves, 99% by weight consists of glass (75%), plastics (10%), aluminum (9%) and silicon (5%) which can all be recycled.


I don't want solar to be the enemy. I just wanted to point out that its not quite so simple and that 'nuclear waste' is a far smaller problem then people realize.

http://environmentalprogress.org/big-news/2017/6/21/are-we-h...




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: