Closed loop? Reused #SolarPanels to power solar panel #recycling facility
Sean Wolfe
7.26.2024
"#SolarCycle, a solar recycling company, has installed an on-site solar farm made of reused solar panels that will power its industrial solar panel recycling facility.
"The reused panels come from decommissioned utility-scale solar farms and residential installations across the United States. SOLARCYCLE says the project serves as a model of how to power an industrial facility through renewable energy as the US ramps up domestic manufacturing capacity. It will also help to build a fully closed loop, ultra-low carbon solar industry in America.
"The 500KW system made from around 1,000 reused panels will provide around 50% of the electricity SOLARCYCLE uses to power their advanced recycling factory in #OdessaTexas. SOLARCYCLE’s plan is to expand this secondhand power plant to continue to generate more of the company’s energy demands, including its facilities in #MesaArizona, and #CedartownGeorgia. Two of SOLARCYCLE’s customers provided a significant percentage of the secondhand solar panels in use — #Ørsted from their own Texas utility-scale operations and #Sunrun, from their residential operations.
[...]
"Earlier this year, SOLARCYCLE announced it would invest an estimated $344 million into a new #SolarGlass manufacturing facility in #CedartownGeorgia. The company said it would be the 'first-of-its-kind' in the United States to use recycled materials from retired solar panels to make new solar glass.
"The facility will be located in Cedartown North Business Park, a Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development (GRAD) certified site in Cedartown. The plant, which will be the first of SOLARCYCLE’s facilities to manufacture glass in addition to recycling solar panels, was scheduled to begin construction this year and is expected to be operational in 2026.
"SOLARCYCLE currently operates two solar panel recycling facilities in the United States and says its recycling technology allows it to extract up to 95% of the value from used solar panels. SOLARCYCLE’s new plant in Georgia will make the company one of the first manufacturers of specialized glass for crystalline-silicon (c-Si) #photovoltaics in the U.S., with the capacity to make 5 to 6 GW worth of solar glass every year, it said. The glass will be sold directly back to the domestic solar manufacturers.
"Solar photovoltaics are often recycled the same way as glass, cars, computer monitors, TVs, or lighting, but the process only recovers about 80% of PV materials. Nonspecialized recycling is one of the challenges to achieving a circular economy for solar photovoltaics.
"While the moral incentive to recycle solar panels is clear, little financial incentive exists today. Recycling a solar panel ranges in cost from $20 to $30, while dumping the same panel in a landfill runs $1 to $2 – but SOLARCYCLE believes the cost to #landfill to be much higher when factoring in logistics costs."
The current #SolarCycle25 started in 2019. It is not expected to end for another six years but the first signs that the next #SolarCycle is beginning have been spotted by researchers from the University of #Birmingham and presented at the @royalastrosoc National #Astronomy Meeting in Hull. "We're likely seeing the first traces of Cycle 26, which won't officially start until about
2030." https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/07/240719123850.htm
Solstício de Verão, Porto de Mós, #Lagos 2011. Que o dia mais longo (e a noite mais curta) possam ser uma metáfora oferecida pela natureza para os dias que atravessamos, em que a luz e a claridade parecem ceder às sombras e à escuridão.##summersolstice #Barlaventoalgarvio #solarcycle #naturecults #celebratingthelight #seaside #settingsun #odiamaislongo #photography
All of this solar activity reminds us... we have a show on that! Recorded last fall, Fraser and Dr. Pamela discussed solar cycles in general, cycle 25 in particular, and everyone's wishes for lost of aurorae...
https://www.astronomycast.com/2024/01/ep-703-solar-maximum-of-doom-maybe/
December 2023 #SolarCycle
has a separate external forcing than #CO2. By examining the solar-cycle response at the #Earth’s surface, we can estimate the effect of the #climate feedback involved, and hence the climate sensitivity of the Earth system. This is a different approach than some of the current ones, for example, of using the effect of #Arctic snow-albedo https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-43583-7
Equinócio da Primavera 2024 #springequinox #solarcycle #Spring #Primavera
Why has the sea surface temperature ( #SST ) increased so fast this past year and a half? Are #climate models missing key factors?
The article provides a good overview of some of the compounding effects (SO2 aerosols, #solarcycle 25, #water vapour from the Hunga Tonga #eruption and El Nĩno), but is it enough to explain what’s happening? Either way, it’s an enormous amount of heat.
#climatechange #globalwarming
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/why-is-the-sea-so-hot
@dan613 the 2010 article by @rahmstorf mentions "While the cooling during some volcanic episodes appears to be slightly overestimated in our model (possibly suggesting an underestimate of the effect of #SolarActivity)...Further research is needed to resolve this issue." https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2010GL042710
The current #SolarCycle seems to begin earlier and to be more active than predicted, which leads to the assumption that "further research is needed" (over a longer period than the last 2000 years)
Inuvik, Canada: Town celebrates return of the sun after 30 polar nights. #solarcycle #sunrise #sunset #herecomesthesun
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-67918636
Variations in solar activity are an important and well-studied source of natural climate variability, contributing to a variety of past climate fluctuations.
However, recent changes are too small (and in the wrong direction) to explain recent global warming.
Ongoing solar cycle number 25 is expected to peak in late 2024 or early 2025.
It has increased in activity relative to the very weak previous cycle, but thus far remains less active than the 20th century average.
Solstício de Inverno 2923 : que o Inverno vos seja leva e a Primavera uma certeza. Praia das Avencas, solstício de Inverno 2017 #wintersolstice #solarcycle #Winter #seaviews #coastline #praiadasAvencas #photography
The Sunspots Are Coming (Again) - There are a bunch of ways to estimate the age of a radio amateur, by the letters i... - https://hackaday.com/2023/12/01/the-sunspots-are-coming-again/ #currentevents #solarcycle #featured #sunspots #space #sun
The Sun has been more active than expected in the past year, producing more sunspots and solar flares than predicted. This contradicts the forecasts of a quiet solar cycle based on the Sun’s 11-year magnetic activity cycle. The increased solar activity could affect Earth’s climate, satellites, and power grids and create spectacular auroras.
#Sun #SolarCycle #SpaceWeather https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/the-sun-has-been-more-active-recently-than-astronomers-predicted?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic%2Fspace
#Industrial #solar #recycling capacity is nowhere near capable of handling volume of panels that need to be disposed of. Now, almost all panels that stop working in the #USA go to #landfills - #DirtyLittleSecret of #CleanEnergy industry. But it's possible to recycle them. Watch the video.
You’ll get a glimpse into the factory in #OdessaTX that #startup #Solarcycle built to test out its process for #Solarpanel #recycling