Cadmium Poisoning Solar Panels

Cadmium telluride cdte is a commonly used material in thin film solar modules.

Cadmium poisoning solar panels. They also contain lead cadmium and other toxic even carcinogenic chemicals that cannot be removed without breaking apart the entire panel. The debate over the toxic potential of thin film solar panels based on cadmium compounds has been reignited. Cadmium fumes may cause flu like symptoms and more severe respiratory problems. However cadmium telluride has toxicity concerns.

Although thin film photovoltaics do contain some heavy metals including cadmium numerous studies e g. Worker exposure to cadmium can occur in all industry sectors but mostly in manufacturing and construction. It s harmful if swallowed and is very toxic to aquatic life. In one 2003 study researchers drew attention to the fact that cadmium is the benefactor of special environmental treatment which allows solar energy to be more economically efficient as far as that word quite applies to solar energy even in the current state of subsidization.

This annealing process is accomplished in the presence of oxygen at temperatures near 390 c after the cdte layer is grown on the cds layer and prior to the back contact deposition. The sustainability of photovoltaics and life cycle impact analysis of cadmium in cdte pv production have found that these metals do not leach from the modules into the environment under normal conditions or anticipated accidents such as storm damage or fires. Cadmium telluride ct is a highly toxic chemical that is part of solar panels. The fact that cadmium can be washed out of solar modules by rainwater is increasingly a concern for local environmentalists like the concerned citizens of fawn lake in virginia where a 6 350 acre solar farm to partly power microsoft data centers is being proposed.

Workers may be exposed during smelting and refining of metals and manufacturing batteries plastics coatings and solar panels. Overall cdte solar cell performance was significantly improved after the discovery of a cadmium chloride cdcl 2 vapor treatment. Solar panels generate 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than nuclear power plants. Cadmium is a particular toxic waste problem.

First solar also claims that their product is more environmentally friendly than c si cells because of the lower energy inputs required in manufacturing. This lack of weight gain occurred at low moderate and high doses. Worse rainwater can wash many of these toxics out of the fragments of solar modules over time. In the journal progress in photovoltaics it reported that male and female rats that received ct through ingestion did not gain weight as they normally should have.

Approximately 90 of most pv modules are made up of glass.