The industry’s current circular capacity is woefully unprepared for the deluge of waste that is likely to come.
Economic incentives are rapidly aligning to encourage customers to trade their existing panels for newer, cheaper, more efficient models. In an industry where circularity solutions such as recycling remain woefully inadequate, the sheer volume of discarded panels will soon pose a risk of existentially damaging proportions.
To be sure, this is not the story one gets from official industry and government sources. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)’s official projections assert that “large amounts of annual waste are anticipated by the early 2030s” and could total 78 million tonnes by the year 2050. That’s a staggering amount, undoubtedly. But with so many years to prepare, it describes a billion-dollar opportunity for recapture of valuable materials rather than a dire threat. The threat is hidden by the fact that IRENA’s predictions are premised upon customers keeping their panels in place for the entirety of their 30-year life cycle. They do not account for the possibility of widespread early replacement.
Related: China’s coal production is set to climb for the sixth year in a row, reaching a new record [4.4 billion tons]. If you’re doing anything to reduce your emissions, you’ve just been offset… forever.
Hard to take this seriously when the article confuses power and energy (kilowatts versus kilowatt hours).
What would Harvard Business Review know about energy? Their expertise is how to fleece investors.
Our company often hired consulting firms who had Harvard MBAs. My colleagues called them Much Bigger As*holes
Yeah, I’ve seen that alot around here.
In this article, as usual, the intellectual media attempt to oppress the sane among us with “everything they know, that ain’t really so.” Like this beauty,
“The science is indisputable: Continuing to rely on fossil fuels to the extent we currently do will bequeath a damaged if not dying planet to future generations.”
That is total and complete nonsense, but the scientific method has fallen into disuse, and the political propaganda arm of the UN’s IPCC has overrun and overwhelmed the Average Joe. BTW, average Joes are funding this anti-scientific nonsense, in effect destroying their own quality of life at the behest of the oppressors.
ON Thursday I will be celebrating my thankfulness for the handful of scientists who refuse to bow to the political will of the globalists, and who continue to speak the truth about nonsensical and destructive un-substantiated lies of “Climate Change.” RIP Tim Ball, we miss you.
Thanks roaddog, I was about to comment on that “indisputable” science.
Has anyone consulted Greta on this matter?
I see they’d rather destroy them than give them away, just like the LCBO did with Russian booze.
What a bunch of aholes.
Meanwhile … all the woke ESG corporations are desperate to sell into the Billion-man ChiCom market. However … without massive coal power plants … that Billion-man marketplace will have no jobs and no Yuan to spend. So all the virtue-signaling US multinationals are THRILLED the ChiComs are loading up on cheap, dirty, coal.
They get to play both sides of the street. Why? Corporate greed. Simple.
Canadians are being scammed from all directions.
Climate Scam.
Virus Scam.
Vax Passport Scam.
CBDC Scam.(digital money)
Crime Scam.
WEF Scam.
Inflation Scam.
Debt Scam.
Media Scam…………etc
Change Scam to Spam and you have a Python skit.
Canadians are sleepwalking to the proverbial crematoriums.
The Scam is working.
No surprise as the Big Dumbdown has been inordinately successful.
What is a surprise is how many people see it, see those responsible, holding the doors………… and just keep walking.
Now we KNOW why the Jews walked peacefully into the German “showers” … all good clean fun. Followed by agonizing death
Increasing efficiency from what to what? The claim is that it’s going up by ~0.5% per year over the last 10 years. So assuming they started at 30%, after 10 years they have reach 31.69%, and they still lose about 3% of capacity per year once they are in service.
I think the author’s assumptions are faulty
Ha ha ha … horse $hit …these prophets of doom have been at it since 1870 …
NYC 1870 Horse Manure Apocalypse
https://99percentinvisible.org/article/cities-paved-dung-urban-design-great-horse-manure-crisis-1894/
By the 1870s, New Yorkers were taking over 100 million horsecar trips per year and by 1880 there were at least 150,000 horses in the city. Some of these provided transportation for people while others served to move freight from trains into and around the growing metropolis. At a rate of 22 pounds per horse per day, equine manure added up to millions of pounds each day and over a 100,000 tons per year (not to mention around 10 million gallons of urine).