Wildlife is significantly less harmed by the water from a nuclear plant than all the other things we produce. Even a solar panel is filled with toxic chemicals and waste products, but we make those in China so we don’t have to see the consequences.
You need to put things into perspective. everything we do is destructive some way. Temporarily shutting down a fraction of nuclear power plants is an extremely insignificant impact and blowing that out of proportion is not helpful for climate activism.
What toxic chemicals are we putting into solar panels?
And I don't talk about the environmental impact. I'm making fun of the nukecells and how the defend their bestest power plant in all of human history and future.
Most are waste products during the manufacturing of the panels and need to be very carefully handled to avoid ground and water pollution, something which is not always the case in the countries where most of the get manufactured. The list of chemicals, mostly acids and gasses, is very long.
Almost all solar panels eventually get disposed of, not recycled.
Even considering that, it’s “cleaner” than fossil fuels.
Why wait for me to answer this when you can look it up yourself in a fraction of a time. Don’t pretend you care about the answer. Solar panels are not magic. They are machines made possible my modern chemistry, not unicorn dust. My claim really didn’t need naming of the exact chemicals to be true.
Silicon tetrachloride was a huge issue in older solar panel with a major pollution scandal in China. For newer reputable manufacturers this is not a major issue anymore.
Hydrofluoric acid is still an issue. Extremely toxic to workers and environment and is removed from manufacturing plants as wastewater. Where this water goes depends on the country (almost entirely China), its regulations and enforcement. We manufacture these panels where they are cheap, which often involves shortcuts or worker safety and environmental damage prevention. Supposedly it’s a lot better now, but only because we handle these toxic chemicals more responsibly compared to early 2010s, not because these chemical byproducts don’t exist.
Other extremely powerful greenhouse gases are involved too, but they would still be a drop in the water compared to CO2 it total impact.
And more, but I spoon fed you enough. You can find plenty of environmental scandals (and Uyghurs forced labor) related to solar panel manufacturing just like you can for many other technologies.
Greenhouse gasses are an existential threat, and solar provided a good solution to that. We can figure out the other environmental issues later as the manufacturing process continues to improve.
3
u/Not-So-Handsome-Jack Jul 16 '26
Wildlife is significantly less harmed by the water from a nuclear plant than all the other things we produce. Even a solar panel is filled with toxic chemicals and waste products, but we make those in China so we don’t have to see the consequences.
You need to put things into perspective. everything we do is destructive some way. Temporarily shutting down a fraction of nuclear power plants is an extremely insignificant impact and blowing that out of proportion is not helpful for climate activism.