Polysilicon-Production Waste Unacceptable To Solar Industry

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.solarindustrymag.com/e107_plugins/content/content_lt.php?content.1098

Polysilicon-Production Waste Unacceptable To Solar Industry

in News Departments > New & Noteworthy
by Michael Bates on Thursday 13 March 2008

The solar industry is responding to a recent article in The Washington Post that examines the environmental hazards posed by silicon tetrachloride - a toxic byproduct of polysilicon production.

The article, composed by foreign service correspondent Ariana Eunjung Cha for the Sunday, March 9, edition of the Post, focuses on China - where industry related to solar energy products has been growing at a swift pace. Substantial pollution, the author suggests, is complementing this growth.

Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), says SEIA member companies are "outraged and disappointed by the reports."

"This story was the first we had heard of this practice, which violates both our association's professional code of conduct and the very spirit of what we're trying to do as an industry," Resch says. "We are out to solve environmental problems - not create them."

...

[jpak]

1. K&R

n/t

[phantom power]

2. Even I expected it would take a few more years...

To start seeing stories like this. I figured we'd have to install a few eJ/year worth of the stuff first.

If anybody ever manufactures, for example, enough wind and/or solar to provide 10 exajoules per year (which is a bit less than 1/10 of our current yearly energy usage here in the USA), I guarantee you that people will be fucking shocked at the environmental impact of all that manufacturing, to say nothing of the materials extraction impact, or the impact of installation and maintenance.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=123743&mesg_id=123750

[jpak]

3. I'm sorry - this is one incident in China - where the rivers run red with pollution

the sky is grey with pollution and the earth is poisoned with pollution...

Dumping SiCl4 doesn't happen in the US: Hemlock Semiconductor (Hemlock MI) is ramping up polysilicon to 36,000 tons/yr in Michigan - where are all the SiCl4 dumping horror stories???

clue: they don't exist...

REC (Norway) uses a closed loop fluidized bed process to produce polySi in Moses Lake WA - with little of no uneconomic waste - where are all the SiCl4 dumping horror stories???

clue: they don't exist...

FYI

[phantom power]

4. Agreed, it's just one story.

But it appeared, er... faster than I expected. And the renewable boom is just starting to heat up.

I predicted we'd start seeing them. And here's one. We'll see what we see.

[Massacure]

5. Just like Chernobyl was one incident in the U.S.S.R.

Where politics is more important than all else.

:evilgrin:

[NickB79]

6. And I'm sure the solar maufacturing industry won't outsource to China

Just like the US manufacturing base has been booming in recent years :sarcasm:

There's a reason the rivers run red in China: it's cheaper to manufacture in countries with lax environmental laws. Why would the solar industry be any different, especially if we expect solar to compete on a cost-per-watt basis with coal and natural gas?

[NickB79]

10. I just had a terrifying thought of the future

It would be the epitome of irony if China gets into solar panel production in a big way, and powers the solar panel factories and silicon smelters with their massive coal industry.

I dare anyone to tell me it couldn't seriously happen.

[NNadir]

7. Bullshit. Simply because YOU ignore electronic waste doesn't mean it isn't a real

problem.

The fact is bub, that you will ignore this waste - completely - because you don't give a rat's ass about it.

The fact is that if solar electricity ever gets to an exajoule per year - it's waste profile will become obvious - because its mass/energy density sucks. The latter fact has everything to do with why it has never been economic to use solar PV electricity by the larger masses and why solar PV electricity is nothing more than rich boy toys.

[bananas]

8. The mass/energy density of photons sucks!

:rofl:

[jpak]

11. Bullshit. Just because you ignore sulfuric acid uranium solution mining doesn't mean it isn't real

In this *isolated* incident - in China - *one* poly-Si company *illegally* dumped SiCl4, which decomposes to hydrochloric acid...

the Horror, the Horror...

But delusional hobbyists and NEI wannabees blithely *disregard* uranium solution mining where *mass quantities* of sulfuric acid and other chemicals are *deliberately* dumped into the earth to extract uranium. This practice not only acidifies ground water it mobilizes all sorts of nasties that further pollute aquifers.

This is *standard practice* in the uranium mining industry.

Uranium solution mining apologists can suck it...

Oh yeah - current PV production will result in enough PV capacity (>100 GW) to produce ex-o-jewels of energy within 6 years - you cant build a single nuclear plant in that time...

[losthills]

9. We shouldn't be buying PV from China anyway.

Or much of anything else.

If there is any road out of this mess we are in it has to start with local sourcing of products. Everything you import from over seas comes with a huge carbon footprint. If you're choosing PV to combat global warming, how much sense does it make to manufacture it in a country with no environmental regs and bring it here on a diesel spewing ship? None. Global shipping is one of the worst contributors to global warming.

It's not going to be easy to turn the clock back on globalization, but localization needs to be the new watchword.