Re: solar cells toxic

From: Fred B. McGalliard (frederick.b.mcgalliard_at_boeing.com)
Date: 06/28/04 

Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 14:50:32 GMT

"brianb" <bri1600bv@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:68a6629.0406260919.54e3c52f@posting.google.com...
...
> Yes, so what? Everything is polluting somewhat.
>
> I was responding to people who insisted that solar is "100% benign"

Now you are getting silly. Solar cells consist of doped silicon. The poisons
are alloyed in the metal and are very difficult to remove, even by grinding
up and inserting in digestive acids (you could do it in hydrofluoric acid,
but that's about the only way I know). The silane is not released, it is
used in ovens to form silicon layers (no silicone involved, that is a
plastic). The major less than benign impacts of solar are tying up a huge
industry making the cells, and driving all over the desert installing and
maintaining a huge area covered by them. The pollution of the oil fired
trucks doing this would be a big deal except the trucks will have to be
electric or we would not be building the solar anyway. Even the mining
consists of good clean sand, removing some nasty poisons from other minerals
we are already mining, (and in very small proportions). The largest released
contamination is likely from the mining and manufacture of the copper cables
used to move the power around, although we already have so much of that in
place I think we are talking a minor secondary impact. (Isn't it arsenic
that is found with the copper ore?)

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