Featured in Blooming roofs – 10-2020

Limited risk of PV for landfill

While it’s far from ideal to have solar modules dumped in a landfill, in much of the world today, it’s a likely outcome. The silver lining to this dark cloud is that research published this year indicates that PV modules likely pose limited risks to human health, even using the most conservative assumptions. Garvin Heath, a senior scientist with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) coordinated the study in his role as the Operating Agent of the International Energy Agency’s Technology Collaboration Programme on PV Power Systems (PVPS), Task 12 – Sustainability.

By

Jonathan Gifford

12 Oct 2020

Image: NREL

In May, findings were published addressing the potential health impacts of putting PV modules in landfills when they reach the end of life. What was the result? What we found was that through different exposure routes and taking many conservative, or health protective, assumptions, PV modules put into unlined landfills likely do not present risk …

This article is part of pv+

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