{"id":61731,"date":"2022-02-01T07:54:19","date_gmt":"2022-02-01T12:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=61731"},"modified":"2022-02-01T07:54:19","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T12:54:19","slug":"when-renewables-are-not-renewable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=61731","title":{"rendered":"When Renewables Are Not Renewable"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Renewables Are Not Renewable<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Sure the wind and sun are renewable, but the collectors we build are not<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Wind Turbines<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We term an energy source \u201crenewable\u201d when the energy provided is powered by the sun \u2014 wind and solar, or powered by gravitational forces \u2014 tidal. However, the energy collectors are not renewable.<\/p>\n

Solar<\/strong><\/p>\n

Solar panels must be replaced every 30 to 40 years because solar panels degrade efficiency by about 1% per year. If we covered the entire state of Arizona with solar panels, they would produce enough electricity to power the world at our current level of demand \u2014 but they would have to be replaced every 30\u201340 years.<\/p>\n

Presently one US company has a recycling program for their solar panels. The cost of recycling is $20 to $30 per panel. Taking the panels to the nearest landfill cost only $1 to $2 per panel. In addition to the devastating waste produced by solar panels, they are manufactured from finite materials found under the Earth \u2014 limited materials whose mining disrupts and poisons the ecosystem.<\/p>\n

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By 2050, the International Renewable Energy Agency projects that up to 78 million metric tons of solar panels will have reached the end of their life, and that the world will be generating\u00a0about 6 million metric tons<\/strong>\u00a0of new solar e-waste annually \u2014\u00a0WIRED<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Over half of the industrial processes<\/a>\u00a0involving heat cannot be performed by electricity. Electricity alone can not produce the high temperatures necessary. The hottest industrial operations performed by electricity are limited to 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit. The manufacturing process for solar panels involved temperatures between 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit and 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit \u2014\u00a0meaning it takes fossil fuels to build solar panels.\u00a0<\/strong>No procedures exist to build them any other way.<\/p>\n

Wind<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Renewables Are Not Renewable Sure the wind and sun are renewable, but the collectors we build are not Wind Turbines We term an energy source \u201crenewable\u201d when the energy provided is powered by the sun \u2014 wind and solar, or powered by gravitational forces \u2014 tidal. However, the energy collectors are not renewable. Solar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1647,328,32597,674,1564,884],"class_list":["post-61731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-finite-resources","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-gary-janosz","tag-renewable-energy","tag-solar-energy","tag-wind-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61731"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61732,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61731\/revisions\/61732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}