here are some chemicals used in the manufacturing process to prepare silicon and make the wafers for
monocrystalline and polycrystalline panels. One of the most toxic chemicals created as a byproduct of this process is silicon tetrachloride. This chemical, if not handled and disposed of properly, can lead to burns on your skin, harmful air pollutants that increase lung disease, and if exposed to water can release hydrochloric acid, which is a corrosive substance bad for human and environmental health.
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For any user of solar panels, this is not an immediate risk as it only affects manufacturers and recyclers. More disconcerting, however, is the environmental impact of these chemicals.
Based on installed capacity and power-related weight, we can estimate that by 2016, photovoltaics had spread about 11,000 tons of lead and about 800 tons of cadmium. A hazard summary of cadmium compounds produced by the EPA
points out that exposure to cadmium can lead to serious lung irritation and long-lasting impairment of pulmonary functions. Exposure to lead hardly needs further explanation.
Recycling Solar Panels
In one 2003
study, researchers drew attention to the fact that cadmium is the benefactor of special environmental treatment, which allows solar energy to be more economically efficient (as far as that word quite applies to solar energy even in the current state of subsidization). They wrote:
If they were classified as “hazardous” according to Federal or State criteria, then special requirements for material handling, disposal, record keeping, and reporting would escalate the cost of decommissioning.
This mirrors an answer given by Cara Libby, Senior Technical Leader of Solar Energy at the Electric Power Research Institute (
EPRI), who admits that there is no lucrative amount of salvageable parts on any type of solar panel. She adds:
In Europe, we’ve seen that when it’s mandated, it gets done. Either it becomes economical or it gets mandated. But I’ve heard that it will have to be mandated because it won’t ever be economical.
It is no wonder that Chinese factories, when confronted with the exorbitant costs (both financial and environmental) of decomposing solar panel chemicals properly, prefer to release them into the environment rather than dispose of them in an environmentally safe manner.
Stanford Magazine also
points out that solar energy has a higher carbon footprint than wind and nuclear energy. Ray Weiss, a professor of Geochemistry at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography,
explains that a number of solar panels release nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), a chemical compound 17,000 times worse for the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. As recently as 2015, he explained that many manufacturers were still struggling to figure out how to contain its release into the atmosphere.
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"China alone makes up about 50 per cent of global coal consumption, and coal is about 60 per cent of total Chinese energy consumption," she said.
China remains the world's largest producer of carbon emissions — where air pollution is still responsible for more than 1 million premature deaths a year — but also contributed to almost a third of the global renewables investment in 2018.
www.abc.net.au
But the old semiconductor fabrication plants, known as fabs, had an ugly side.
Toxic chemicals seeped into the ground and water sources near semiconductor plants and made their way into the bodies of workers and even their children.
Are Silicon Chips Hazardous After Manufacturing?
Even the small, metallic particles used during semiconductor production don't just disappear. These compounds can remain in finished semiconductor products, like solar panels. There's
concern that these harmful nanoparticles may be released or leach into other materials during handling—thus contacting the skin or inadvertently entering the body.
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However, each poses a fundamental hazard to human health during acute or repeated exposure.
- Arsenic exposure may cause swelling, skin irritation, anemia, leukocytopenia, and multiple forms of cancer (over extended periods). Acute ingestion can cause burning, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, convulsions, coma, and even death.
- Mercury exposure is associated with nervous system issues, immune disorders, kidney damage, skin irritation, and eye irritation. The WHO considers it a top ten chemical of public health concern.
- Gallium is corrosive and harmful when inhaled—from a respiratory, nervous, and renal standpoint.
- Tellurium can cause eye, skin, and lung issues. Sustained inhalation can lead to pulmonary edema, liver and kidney damage, nervous system damage, and general fatigue or sickness.
- Repeat exposure to cadmium is attributed to cancer growth. It also impacts the cardiovascular, nervous, respiratory, renal, and gastrointestinal systems.
It is important to note that these metals can exist in different forms—whether they're solids, powders, or liquids. OSHA and other agencies define workplace exposure limits to these elements, while workers and floor engineers wear PPE to help restrict exposure.
“Let’s do it right this time.”
www.theverge.com
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