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Solar power has begun to transform the world’s energy system

(www.newyorker.com)
353 points dmazin | 6 comments | 09 Jul 25 12:31 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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jonplackett ◴[10 Jul 25 08:19 UTC] No.44518605[source]▶
> Instead of relying on scattered deposits of fossil fuel—the control of which has largely defined geopolitics for more than a century—we are moving rapidly toward a reliance on diffuse but ubiquitous sources of supply. The sun and the wind are available everywhere

I’m all for solar - but does it really solve the geographical / geopolitical issues of oil, as it’s currently rolling out?

China produces pretty much all the solar panels - That’s quite a big concentration of power, even more so than oil.

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1. bhaak ◴[10 Jul 25 08:22 UTC] No.44518623[source]▶
Solar panels can be locally recycled. Oil cannot.

Of course if you don't build up a local solar industry you are still dependent on foreign countries but it's not that China has an unchanging monopoly on the solar industry.

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2. nradov ◴[10 Jul 25 10:09 UTC] No.44519303[source]▶
Solar panel recycling has never really been done at scale. And a country would need fairly advanced manufacturing capabilities first before they could conduct that recycling.
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3. adrianN ◴[10 Jul 25 11:20 UTC] No.44519732[source]▶
Are old solar panels available at scale? They last for decades.
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4. lnsru ◴[10 Jul 25 12:27 UTC] No.44520226{3}[source]▶
First 15-20 years old Siemens panels come off the roofs right now in Germany. Still having 2/3 of the rated power generation capability. Absolutely fascinating thing. And since they cost more or less nothing it would make absolutely sense to install them in some lower cost of living area in southern Europe. I can get the panels in Germany, who wants to take over the southern Europe part?
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5. hnaccount_rng ◴[10 Jul 25 15:50 UTC] No.44522344{4}[source]▶
They are also old technology and only about half as efficient as current ones. So even if you restore them to full nameplate capacity for free they are still wasted to put anywhere as long as the installation price is dominated by labor costs. The _only_ scenario in which this might be worth it is if there are no new solar cells available
6. marcosdumay ◴[10 Jul 25 16:08 UTC] No.44522556{4}[source]▶
Yep. Those will still not be available for recycling.