Solar Energy Firms Leave Waste Behind in China

[jpak]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/08/AR2008030802595.html

GAOLONG, China -- The first time Li Gengxuan saw the dump trucks from the nearby factory pull into his village, he couldn't believe what happened. Stopping between the cornfields and the primary school playground, the workers dumped buckets of bubbling white liquid onto the ground. Then they turned around and drove right back through the gates of their compound without a word.

This ritual has been going on almost every day for nine months, Li and other villagers said.

In China, a country buckling with the breakneck pace of its industrial growth, such stories of environmental pollution are not uncommon. But the Luoyang Zhonggui High-Technology Co., here in the central plains of Henan Province near the Yellow River, stands out for one reason: It's a green energy company, producing polysilicon destined for solar energy panels sold around the world. But the byproduct of polysilicon production -- silicon tetrachloride -- is a highly toxic substance that poses environmental hazards.

<snip>

Because of the environmental hazard, polysilicon companies in the developed world recycle the compound, putting it back into the production process. But the high investment costs and time, not to mention the enormous energy consumption required for heating the substance to more than 1800 degrees Fahrenheit for the recycling, have discouraged many factories in China from doing the same. Like Luoyang Zhonggui, other solar plants in China have not installed technology to prevent pollutants from getting into the environment or have not brought those systems fully online, industry sources say.

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[phantom power]

1. K&R

[NickB79]

2. Surprise!

Or not.

[jpak]

3. or - not

This is China - it's what they do...

[phantom power]

4. China's economic niche: Importing pollution.

In the same way that exporting aluminum is effectively exporting embodied energy, China's policy of cheap manufacturing is effectively importing environmental degradation.

We all paid them for it, although not very well.

[NNadir]

7. They don't feel pain like we do.

....If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee...

John Donne.

"It's what they do..."

Indeed...

It is not so secure behind the gates as we'd like to pretend.

[jpak]

9. Yes - this bodes well for China's "clean-n-green" nuclear power industry

Glow-slaves anyone???

[NNadir]

10. Actually, China's nuclear industry - like nuclear industries everywhere - is the cleanest

form of energy they have.

To me, a cavalier statement that "that's the way they do things in China," with respect to the unrestricted dumping electronic waste - precisely what every solar cell on this planet will be in 30 years - is typical of western yuppie racism.

In fact, yuppie solar toys are not a significant form of energy anywhere on this planet. The so called "renewable" energy industry - at least the solar and wind portion of it - despite international cheering that has been going on for 50 years has failed to produce an exajoule of energy anywhere, not in the US, not in Germany, not in China, not in Japan.

Nevertheless the enthusiasm for these forms of energy remains unabated. I note, holding my usual contempt for yuppie indifference and self-delusion - that the consequences of any form of distributed energy generation - the automobile being the most egregious example - represents an avenue for point source pollution.

I don't think that solar electricity will be a significant form of energy on this planet in my life time, and for my entire adult life, stretching now over decades, I have yet to be proved wrong on this score.

But mark my words: If, not when but if, solar cells actually do reach an exajoule scale, all of a sudden you're going to see a lot of bitching about the environmental impact. And what we will see of this environmental impact is that it will be dumped on the poor.

Not two years ago we were hearing from racist indifferent yuppie brats on this website how biofuels were going to make it possible for us all to have cars with zero environmental impact.

Now of course, the onus is not on the guys borrowing the keys for Mom's E320 diesel wagon. It is on the poor. They are the ones being deprived of food so Germany can offer some dumb ass self congratulations of meeting "renewable portfolio standards."

Renewable my ass.

These days one can find more threads here criticizing biofuels than praising them.

This is proof of the following: Anything can be made to sound wonderful if there is no experimental evidence of the consequences of pursuing it. However when theory disagrees with experiment it is the theory and not the experiment usually that needs correction.

If solar energy were going to be a significant form of energy in time it would have been on an exajoule scale 20 years ago and it's capability and its costs, external and internal, would be measurable.

Solar PV energy has failed to catch on with anyone beyond the country club golf set. This set represents is a class of people - many of whom speak in racist codes - who think that electric cars are a great idea because, after all, the golf carts are electric.

I have never doubted the true nature of the anti-nuke cult. It rings clear every time they open their mouthes.

[Javaman]

20. LOLOL didn't take you long to pull out the nuclear power card. LOLOL nt

[hogwyld]

5. What will this mean in 10years, 20 years?

Will their environment hit some sort of tipping point? Will their food production collapse? Will they have some sort of mass die off due to pollution of their soil and water?

[diane in sf]

6. China sadly has no government structure to really handle regulating pollution

or environmental issues.

[losthills]

8. What do you think they are doing with their nuclear waste?

Stop and think.

It affects you.

[kristopher]

11. There is a predictable pattern related to economic development and pollution control

However, there is little to no difference about individual feelings across cultures regarding the importance of a clean environment.

I think the Chinese are acting with a fair amount of foresight about environmental problems, considering the proven pattern of developing countries. What the lack in policing they attempt to address with central planning. They have a long way to go, but considering everything I think they deserve some credit.

[losthills]

12. The Chinese deserve credit???

Are you talking about the same people that can't make safe dog food and sell our children toys with led paint?

[kristopher]

13. Unsafe dog food has been produced in this country, as have lead painted toys

I wrote of an evaluation of the chinese direction on environmental protection as weighted against economic development. This is a fairly well explored area where the trends relate to percapita GNP. I think the evidence is pretty strong that the chinese are ahead of the curve.

Do you have any *real* evidence to show that is incorrect?

[losthills]

14. Ahead of what "curve??"

The curve that leads to environmental destruction?

[kristopher]

15. Not exactly. It's called the Environmental Kuznets Curve

[losthills]

16. Please document a case of pets dying

from American made pet food.
I have never heard of one.
Thanks.....

[kristopher]

17. No.

As rude as you've consistently been, you can do your own research.

[losthills]

19. I have, and you're blowing smoke

out the familiar orifice and defending the indefensible.

[kristopher]

21. You'd have said the same no matter my answer.

My guess in you can't figure out how to get beyond having your search overwhelmed by the 2007 recall.

That's a hint on how to do it, btw.

[kristopher]

22. Still waiting on reply re Environmental Kuznets Curve

[NickB79]

18. This is to be expected if we want cheap solar power to compete with coal and NG

Because one of the fastest ways to bring down the costs of solar power is to build the components in developing nations with cheap labor and lax environmental laws.

[SEIA Solar]

23. RE: Solar Energy Firms Leave Waste Behind in China

The 550 member companies of SEIA were outraged and disappointed by the reports of toxic chemical dumping by a factory in China ... this practice violates both our association's professional code of conduct and the very spirit of what we're trying to do as an industry. We are out to solve environmental problems, not create them...

Solar energy is the most environmentally friendly energy technology that exists today… But manufacturing solar feedstocks, like any heavy industry, requires strong environmental safeguards. Polysilicon, the primary feedstock in most solar cells, has been produced in the U.S. and Europe for fifty years using the Siemens process in a clean, safe manner, in strict compliance with environmental law…

-- Rhone Resch, president, Solar Energy Industries Association, Washington, D.C.

See Rhone’s full statement: http://www.seia.org/solarnews.php?id=168.

The truth is, at least 89% of air pollution associated with electricity generation could be prevented if power from solar photovoltaics (PV) displaces conventional sources of energy on the the grid. In addition, the PV industry follows a pro-active, long-term environmental strategy involving recycling and waste management to prevent environmental damage.

For more information on the environmental sustainability of solar energy, please see the following link to a study by Brookhaven National Lab and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL):

http://www.pv.bnl.gov/keystone.htm

and a recent Science News article about it:

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20080301/fob5.asp

http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/esthag/2008/42/i06/abs/es071763q.html

[jpak]

24. Welcome to DU!

:hi: