Dear Josephus,

Mate true to form you just gobble this crap up and regurgitate it here. Of course small amounts of cadmium are used in the manufacture of a particular variety of solar panels.

These solar panels make up less than 10% of all installed panels. The cadmium they use is a by product of zinc refinery. You know, the stuff used on your roof. This process produces tonnes of the stuff which is why it is so effective in bringing down the price of solar panels, because it is a waste product. There is so much produced that even if the demand from the solar sector was increased a thousand fold it would not put a dent in the available waste cadmium.

So do you want to ban zinc roofing now?

The same cadmium based technology is used in LED tv screens. They have far less of a usable life than solar panels which are set at 30 years.

Shall we ban LED tvs now too? Where is your angst about them? They are actually in people's homes rather than outside.

Certainly recycling efforts will need to evolve to cope with solar panels. This is already underway in Europe where owners are responsible for recycling theirs. In the US lack of regulation means this will take longer to establish. Hopefully Australia will take the European path and regulate their disposal.

interesting what they will do all old solar panels.

I heard a show on ABC radio a few weeks ago, and not much was being done.

it s a worry when we don't even cycle our on plastic yet.

Not just solar panels....windmill blades as well

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills

Solar and windmills do not work in the Artic zones during heavy snow falls. The only option there is gas or coal in remote areas.

Mr Bower says he didn't see any solar or wind in viet-nam first up. When you have places like Australia doing nothing to improve the environment, it's somewhat cheap having a go at an impoverished nation.
I think Mr ? is getting all the information he was expecting to get.

30 year solar panel would be conservative. mine have a warranty of 25 years which i have used 12 years of already.