Despite challenges from many directions,
solar energy in the United States is booming. The American market is worth about US$6 billion as of last year, and could double by the end of 2011.
With growth comes concern over the industry’s long term viability and sustainability. To that end, the solar industry, or companies at least involved with the
Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), are pledging a bevy of initiatives. These programs include streamlined photovoltaic (PV) panel modules’ dismantling,
waste diversion, and
recycling; sustainable supply chain management, worker safety; and safe products. All this is a focus of the industry and its new environmental, health, and safety committee, according to writer
Monique Hanis--despite this fact:
The volume of U.S. PV module waste was barely 0.05 percent of the nearly 2.2 million metric tons of obsolete computers, monitors, TVs, printers and copiers discarded by U.S. consumers in 2010. The Committee is promoting recycling by actively sharing information on end-of-life options and recycling best practices, even though volume is estimated to be less than 50,000 metric tons per year by 2025.
If only other sectors had been so proactive in the past. Read the entire post
here.
Even before this pledge sustainability has been an important part of the solar industry. We strive to not only help people reduce their electric costs, but do it in a clean sustainable way that will benefit both the industry and the environment.
Thanks for the comment. I beg to differ. This sounds like more of a sales and PR pitch more than authenticity. Solar panels, with all their strengths, have their own set of issues–the toxicity of the panels among them. Then there is their efficiency–and then the structure of PPA’s that do not make them attractive to more homeowners.