With an entirely ironic article, the Washington Post has written about the pollution caused by solar energy firms in China.
To sum it up: "Green" industry in China is responsible of blatant pollution. Instead of dealing with the highly toxic byproducts of the silicon used in Solar Panels, they're just dumping it on the ground in the nearby town. It's dangerous to humans, prevents plants from growing, and is just some really nasty stuff.
"Shi, chief executive of Pro-EnerTech, a start-up polysilicon research firm in Shanghai, said that there's such a severe shortage of polysilicon that the government is willing to overlook this issue for now." (page 2). That's just wrong. The government (and the people) should be doing something about it.
"Made from the Earth's most abundant substance -- sand -- polysilicon is tricky to manufacture. It requires huge amounts of energy, and even a small misstep in the production can introduce impurities and ruin an entire batch. The other main challenge is dealing with the waste. For each ton of polysilicon produced, the process generates at least four tons of silicon tetrachloride liquid waste." (page 2) That means that 80% of their production is hazardous waste, and they're not disposing of it safely. EIGHTY PERCENT of what they create is thrown out into the environment to kill plants and sicken people.
Instead of whining about how they can't go outside because of the pollution, they need to do something about it. The people in China collectively outnumber their governmental officials. They can force the government's hand.
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The 550 member companies of SEIA were outraged and disappointed by the reports of toxic chemical dumping by a factory in China ... this practice violates both our association's professional code of conduct and the very spirit of what we're trying to do as an industry. We are out to solve environmental problems, not create them... Solar energy is the most environmentally friendly energy technology that exists today… But manufacturing solar feedstocks, like any heavy industry, requires strong environmental safeguards. Polysilicon, the primary feedstock in most solar cells, has been produced in the U.S. and Europe for fifty years using the Siemens process in a clean, safe manner, in strict compliance with environmental law… Rhone Resch, president, Solar Energy Industries Association, Washington, D.C. See Rhone’s full statement: http://www.seia.org/solarnews.php?id=168.
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At least 89% of air pollution associated with electricity generation could be prevented if power from solar photovoltaics (PV) displaces conventional sources of energy on the the grid. In addition, the PV industry follows a pro-active, long-term environmental strategy involving recycling and waste management to prevent environmental damage. For more information on the environmental sustainability of solar energy, please see the following link to a study by Brookhaven National Lab and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL):
http://www.pv.bnl.gov/keystone.htm
and a recent Science News article about it:
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20080301/fob5.asp
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/esthag/2008/42/i06/
abs/es071763q.html
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