Company Makes Top 20 Among Mass. Toxic Waste Generators: Starts Manufacturing in China.

[NNadir]

Evergreen Solar Inc., one of Massachusetts' rising green energy stars, is on its way to becoming one of the state's top producers of hazardous waste.

The company generated more than a million pounds of hazardous waste last year, according to a report filed this week with the state Department of Environmental Protection, even though its new $450 million factory in Devens wasn't operating at full capacity.

"It's the other side of this whole clean energy push," said Liz Harriman, deputy director of the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

"Even so-called clean manufacturing uses a lot of nasty chemicals," she said.

Marlboro-based Evergreen Solar is one of 540 Massachusetts businesses that must report toxic chemical usage each year, as part of the state's Toxics Use Reduction Act.

The company's report for 2008 shows that it created nitric acid, sulfuric acid, hydrogen fluoride, and sodium hydroxide. Some of it was treated at Devens, while the restwas disposed of off-site.

An Evergreen executive told neighbors this week that the plant is operating at 40 percent capacity.

When the company's Devens plant is running at full capacity and making some 780,000 solar panels a year, sources say it could be among the state's top three creators of hazardous waste...

...EVERGREEN SOLAR 2008 TOTAL OUTPUT:

** Nitric Acid: 50,450 punds

** Sulfuric Acid: 785,782 pounds

** Hydrogen Fluoride: 54,486 pounds

** Sodium Hydroxide: 252,944 pounds

Evergreen's stock prices have fell from more than $17.50/share in December of 2007 to less than 0.67 cents today on falling revenue owing to falling prices.

They have a notice from NASDAQ giving them 180 days to raise their price above $1.00 or be delisted.

Apparently they've learned what other dirty industries learned: Export waste dumping:

In 2009, Evergreen started closing down domestic module production and auctioning off equipment. That same year, faced with a now non-competitive cost-structure, the firm began moving module manufacturing to a Chinese contract manufacturer.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/214105-rise-and-fall-of-evergreen-solar">Rise and Fall of Evergreen Solar

According to the EIA, solar PV electricity produced (lumped with tidal and wave energy), worldwide in 2007, less than, 0.049 quads (approximately 0.052 exajoules) of the 500 exajoules of energy produced world wide, about as much as a 600 MW gas plant would produce if operated continuously at 100% of capacity utilization.

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/cfapps/ipdbproject/iedindex3.cfm?tid=2&pid=36&aid=12&cid=&syid=2004&eyid=2008&unit=QBTU">EIA Data Table Access Page

[XemaSab]

1. Apparently the evergreen in question is a yew.

:o

[izquierdista]

2. How is this waste?

Nitric and sulfuric acid can be recycled into fertilizer, sodium hydroxide into soap. What this indicates is a linear industrial process with no thought as to how by-products can be used. Probably because they are too cheap to hire the chemical engineering talent to make it work.

[TheMadMonk]

3. May be possible there is some stupid regulation that prevents the recycling...

...of chemical waste.

But even if not, this material does not exist in isolation, it's a part of a greater waste stream, and it simply may not be ecconomially viable to recover it.

[izquierdista]

6. If it is not "economically viable"

Then the EPA fines aren't large enough.

[TheMadMonk]

9. Or simply cheaper to neutralise with the appropriate reagents.

Amount of waste generated has nothing to do with amout of waste released as pollution.

That it is far too often cheaper to pay the fine than manage waste responsibly is a whole 'nother question. One that has not actually been raised in this case.

The point has often been made that Solar photo voltaics are not as green as they appear at first blush. This is merely further confirmation of that observation.

[txlibdem]

7. Impurities perhaps n/t

[NNadir]

4. I seem to have forgotten the link for the OP first quotation.

Here it is: http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/3331348">Toxic Waste Casts Cloud on Mass. Solar Co.

[izquierdista]

5. Better edit your link

[jpak]

16. How much HF do they use to convert uranium oxide to UF6 for nuclear fuel each year?

How much corrosive deadly depleted UF6 is produced at US uranium enrichment plants each year?

What happened to all the nitric acid they used to reprocess spent fuel at the *failed* Nuclear Fuel Services reprocessing plant in West Valley NY?

Inquiring minds demand to know...

[txlibdem]

8. Perspective

How much toxic waste is generated in making a computer, a laser printer, an LCD HDTV? Answer: lots.

But I'll take the bait anyway. If you want solar power with minimal toxic chemicals then you want to go concentrating solar power.

[jpak]

10. Not so nasty, easily neutralized and safely disposed and apparently is

fail

yup!

Now...

let's talk about the 750,000 meteric tonnes of toxic corrosive depleted uranium hexafluoride now stored in corroding casks around the country

[madokie]

11. The OP doesn't want to talk about that

what'a you wanta bet :-)
I'd still like to read some peer reviewed work by mr OP

[jpak]

12. Yes - "they" inject sulfuric acid into ground water to mine uranium

but "we" will ignore that

yup!

:evilgrin:

[madokie]

14. You mean they aren't mining the fly ash mountains around our coal powered power plants

for that.
well blow me over with a soft sigh
All that dangerous radioactive waste just going to waste. Man o man whats the world a coming to

[jpak]

15. radioactive waste is not "waste" - it's full of precious metals and such

and is incapable of any harm to humans or the envionment

yup!

:D

[madokie]

17. And here I thought I was on too something

dollar late and a day short is the story of my life
will I never learn?

[madokie]

13. delete, wrong place

[joshcryer]

18. I'd long since thought you'd gone from here.

You and someone else.

*sigh*