If you could influence our society, what would you do?

When I moaned to a friend (who once believed in solar photo voltaics (PVs) and now questions them) about letters to my newspaper claiming that solar PVs emit no carbon and give “energy independence” while my county, state and federal government grant billions for more panels and more batteries, my friend asked, “If you could influence our society, what would you do?”

            I would invite everyone to say thanks for what we have. I’d invite the thought that if anyone has shelter, food, electricity, a fridge, a washing machine, Internet access and a town library, we can consider them very privileged. If anyone does not have these things, let’s prioritize delivering them.

I’d invite children and adults to learn about their local resources, starting with water. Trace water from their tap to their watershed, to precipitation. In your town, what percentage of water goes to households? to industry, to golf courses? Trace the minerals and ores in your region.

Instead of encouraging the ideas that “you can be anything/anyone you want to be” and “the sky’s the limit” and “your success is up to you,” I’d teach respect for the Earth and respect for ecological limits. I’d celebrate limits. They offer reality and inspire creativity.

I’d have forums for illuminating our dependence on clean water and biodiversity and for discussing what we need collectively, as parts of ecosystems in peril.

I’d explain what manufacturing (including solar PVs, industrial wind, batteries and e-vehicles) does to the Earth from the product’s cradle to its grave.

            I’d invite everyone to prepare for power outages and/or the Internet’s shut-down.

            I’d explain that even our food depends now on telecommunications and the global super-factory. I’d celebrate people who can teach us how to build topsoil, compost and grow vegetables through four seasons.

            I’d explain why solar PVs don’t help us.

            I’d say thanks, again, for all that we have.

Why solar PVs don’t help us

Advertisers call solar power “clean” and “zero-emitting.” This ignores what it takes to manufacture solar PV systems. It ignores what solar-using consumers do for electricity on cloudy days and at night. It ignores the fact that at end-of-life, these systems are hazardous waste.

            Solar PVs make users dependent on the fossil-fuel-guzzling, extraction-guzzling, water-guzzling, toxic waste-emitting global super-factory. We can’t rightly call that “energy independence.”

            Manufacturing solar PVs ravages the Earth. For starters, making solar panels burns trees and coal. The panels are mounted on cement. Producing 1 kg of cement emits 0.5 – 0.9 kg of carbon dioxide, accounting for 5% - 7% of global carbon emissions. Just because manufacturing remains invisible to most consumers does not make solar PVs “green, clean, zero-emitting.”

            Solar PVs provide only intermittent power. Users who expect electricity 24/7 require backup. Backup is available from either the fossil-fueled electric grid OR from batteries. Manufacturing batteries is a toxic, Earth-ravaging enterprise, dependent on fossil fuels, mining, chemicals and water. Operating batteries can be toxic and explosive. For details about battery storage, read Calvin Luther Martin’s 2019 article, “BESS Bombs.” (BESS stands for battery energy storage system.) Even though Vimeo took down all of Martin’s videos, the piece is still Very worthwhile.

            Solar panels and batteries can catch fire. On a sunny day, you cannot de-energize solar panels. What’s a firefighter to do?

            If a battery energy storage system catches fire, it’ll emit hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide and other toxic chemicals. No one can leave their homes, open their windows, run ventilation systems, use the roads or open a business until an EPA expert deems the area safe.

On a rooftop, solar panels increase electrical connections—and fire hazards.

            Panels accumulate dust, which decreases their efficiency. They need to be washed off regularly. Where does the water come from?

            In a hailstorm, solar panels can crack. Their chemicals—including PFAs—can leach into groundwater. What’s the cleanup plan?

            In California, rooftop solar systems that keep connected to the grid generate so much extra power that utilities sometimes pay other states to take it.  

            At the end of their usable lives, solar panels are hazardous waste, same as batteries. They do not biodegrade. If a county permits an 800-acre solar facility (as my county’s commissioners are considering), shouldn’t they require the corporation to post a bond so that if the corporation goes bankrupt, the county does not have to pay to remove 800 acres of hazardous waste?

            Basically, solar PVs give the illusion of “green, clean, energy independence.” They don’t encourage limits to production or consumption. They don’t teach reliance on local energy, local water or local ores.

            If you had influence over society, what would you do—about our energy demands, about solar PVs?

Other News:

After I posted my piece about problems with e-vehicles, several readers told me about a garaged EV that caught fire and how firefighters limited the damage. Yikes.

I’ve also read about the challenges of charging EVs in cold weather.

            A PBS video, “The Dirty Truth about Our Clean Energy Future,” with Sinead Bovell, reports on the ways that so-called “clean energy” systems and e-vehicles actually threaten ecosystems.

            None of this stops increased federal dollars for manufacturing or purchasing solar PVs, industrial wind or EVs.

            Even while head and neck tumors associated with cell phone use have increased since 2000, the U.S. National Toxicology Program will no longer study the effects of exposure to radio frequency radiation (RFR) since the research “was technically challenging and more resource-intensive than expected.” Wowsers. Does the National Institute of Health not want anyone to know the effects of cell phone use? Read one mother’s account of a brain tumor cluster at San Diego State nearly 20 years ago—the first chapter from my 2014 book, An Electronic Silent Spring. Then, ask, where does anyone go with questions about the effects of exposure to electromagnetic radiation from cell phones, laptops, cellular antennas, smart meters, e-vehicles, hybrid vehicles, “smart” appliances, etcetera?

            At least one U.S. county has denied a request for a cell tower permit because “We don’t know if the technology that exists today is more harmful or less harmful.” (Call this an exercise of the Precautionary Principle.)     

            “Israelism,” a documentary released last summer portrays young American Jews encouraged to see Israel as homeland who witness Israel’s unjust treatment of Palestinians. Raised with the idea that the Holocaust should happen “never again,” they realize that by Jewish values, “never again” should apply to all people, including Palestinians. The film will show 40+ screenings around North America in the next 45 days. You can watch the film online for $5. Here’s Al Jazeera’s interview with Simone Zimmerman, whose experience is central to the film.

“SOS: The San Onofre Syndrome: Nuclear Power’s Legacy,” the new documentary from Mary Beth Brangan and James Heddle about nuclear waste, will show at Albuquerque’s Cinema Guild at noon on Sunday, January 28^th. Because Holtec Corporation has proposed shipping the nuclear waste generated at the now-closed San Onofre power plant (near San Diego) to New Mexico, this film is especially relevant to anyone who lives near the truck route between southern California and New Mexico. I reviewed the film last fall. Read here about the Albuquerque event and purchase in-person tickets to it here.