The dark side of solar power

Should the solar industry look beyond ad vocacy?

For their part, the solar industry and its political allies should look beyond narrow ad-vocacy for near-term solar incentives and back policies to create the flexible, decarbonized energy systems that will enable solar power’s long-term success.

Are solar panels unpopular?

Companies that sell, rather than lease, solar panels are unpopular, too; dozens of customers have filed complaints against a company called Pink Energy, which abruptly went out of business in September 2022 and filed for bankruptcy after allegedly selling defunct solar panels and misleading customers about their benefits.

Will solar panel waste destroy the economics of solar?

But the volume of solar panel waste will destroy the economics of solar even with the subsidies, they say. "By 2035,” write the three economists, “discarded panels would outweigh new units sold by 2.56 times.

Do solar panels degrade so fast?

But new research finds that solar panels in use degrade twice as fast as the industry claimed. And that report came on the heels of a separate report which found that solar panels have been suffering a rising failure rate even before entering service.

How big is solar power?

The total power capacity of the solar operations tracked in the dataset represents over 60 gigawatts of electric power capacity. In the following two years, solar capacity has nearly tripled, according to a December 2023 report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie.

How will solar power impact the world?

As a result, the rise of solar energy could continue to empower political inter-ests eager to cut off important clean energy options. 2. Deployment of existing solar technology, locking out emerging technologies. By midcentury, solar power could be the largest source of global electricity generation.