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Solar surpasses nuclear power globally for first time. (www.pv-magazine.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago by to c/futurology@futurology.today
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[–] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 child)

Mining isn't really as big of a deal as the fossil fuel industry likes to make it out to be. ≈99% of solar arrays, wind turbines, and batteries are recyclable, meaning that the scrap will be the richest source of ore in a short order. Maybe a decade or so

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  • [–] 0 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

    Starting with solar PV. The dopants are not retrievable, the silicon too contaminated for PV use, silver, ok, glass panes -- probably not recyclable, melting down can perhaps be done with electric heating. Aluminium profiles, ok. Copper wiring, partly. Renewable infra at scale by the way needs so much copper it will exhaust minable ores.

    So unfortunately PV is a dud recycling-wise and needs so much energy to process you can do it from scratch. Same thing with batteries, especially sodium. Wind, concrete and composite not recyclable, steel and rare earth magnets yes, copper yes.

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