Group submits early comments on DEC Photovoltaic (PV) Panel Waste Reclassification
From Stop Energy Sprawl,
“Large scale solar and wind are not green,” states Stop Energy Sprawl President Steve Helmin. “On this Earth Day, we should recognize the inordinate cost to our environment that has been and will continue to be caused by large scale wind and solar facilities. It is for that purpose that we are pre-filing our response to DEC’s request for comments on reclassifying PV panel waste.”
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced last year that it would be soliciting comments on its proposal to reclassify PV waste from “hazardous” to “universal” waste. This would lower the standards for handling PV waste and could lead to solar panels being sent to county landfills when they break, are discarded, or no longer work.
“There are a couple of problems with this,” notes project leader Janet Glocker from the town of Rush, outside Rochester. “In its request for comments, DEC itself notes that heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium, and lead are contained in many panels currently in use. Additionally, we find that panels composed of dangerous compounds such as cadmium telluride and copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) should remain classified as “hazardous waste.” Glocker adds, “Many panels are coated with PFAS to improve their efficiency or reduce glare. Depending on the type of PFAS, these, too, should be considered hazardous.”
“Our local landfills aren’t ready for this increase in volume,” adds Greg Harkenrider of Duanesburg, Stop Energy Sprawl Vice-President, referring to the ultimate destination for the proposed reclassification to “universal” waste. “Our analysis indicates that PV solar panel disposal in New York State alone will generate about 500,000 cubic yards (83,000 tons) of PV waste and 60 tons of lead per year by 2050, given the State’s current solar proliferation goals. This is a huge added expense and utilization of already-limited landfill space – often in municipalities that actively opposed the siting of the solar facilities that will generate the waste.”
“Panels within large-scale solar installations typically last only a couple of decades,” added Greg Sacco, Deerfield resident and Stop Energy Sprawl Treasurer. “I live in Oneida County which at the moment accepts solar panels as general trash at its landfill. There is no way it could accommodate the volumes being considered in the future for our region. Nor is there an effective recycling effort in New York to handle the volumes proposed.”
Stop Energy Sprawl regularly provides comments on State energy-related initiatives including the State Energy Plan, the New York Power Authority’s Renewables Strategic Plan, and, just last week, the Public Service Commission’s rulemaking on last year’s RAPID Act. The coalition is critical of the State’s targeting of small communities for large-scale wind and solar energy projects, with little regard for the communities’ self-determination – especially when those projects cannot achieve the State’s professed goals.
Analyst Keith Schue of New York Energy & Climate Advocates has put it this way: “Solar and wind are intermittent, low-capacity-factor sources of energy that consume an incredible amount of land and have short lifespans. A plan dominated by them would replace hundreds of thousands of acres—forests, farmland, and wildlife habitat—with glass, copper, and steel. And it still wouldn’t free us of fossil fuels. A more diversified strategy that appreciates the value of reliable, carbon-free energy is needed.”
“Whether or not the State’s buildout of solar reaches the proposed (or greater) levels, New York is going to have to deal with the waste,” Glocker advises. “We believe that DEC and lawmakers should adhere to its Product Stewardship Council’s tenets and shift ‘waste management costs off taxpayers and into the cost of the product resulting in reduced waste destined for landfills.’ Niagara County has already instituted a law requiring manufacturers to create a disposal plan for each installed panel and the State Legislature is considering similar legislation. It’s a concept that is past due.”
Stop Energy Sprawl (www.stopenergysprawl.org) is a coalition of community groups, municipalities, and elected officials from localities in New York State targeted by land-wasting large-scale wind & solar projects located far from where that energy is needed. Stop Energy Sprawl’s objectives are to push back on the State’s unrealistic energy plan, restore Home Rule, and help concerned municipalities to fend off large scale solar and wind projects in order to protect our farmland, pastures, sacred lands, historic & cultural resources, woodlots, wetlands, water bodies, environment and ecosystems.
