Heard someone say solar panels are bad for the environment and it got me thinking

I was at a coffee shop last Tuesday and overheard a guy telling his friend that solar panels create toxic waste and are worse than coal. He was talking about how they can't be recycled and all that. I get that there's some truth to manufacturing impacts, but compared to burning fossil fuels for 30 years, the math seems obvious to me. A typical residential system offsets around 100 tons of CO2 over its life according to NREL data I looked up. Has anyone else run into this kind of pushback from people who think renewables aren't worth it?

2 comments

2 Comments

smith.blair1mo ago

Did you ever look up how much waste coal plants actually produce compared to solar panels? I used to think the same thing until I saw the numbers and it completely flipped my view.

martin.margaret1mo ago

Well I'll be! My neighbor installed solar panels last year and now he spends all his time complaining about how the birds won't stop pooping on them.