Hazardous Materials

Solar panels are not as "green" as we are led to believe.

There is a massive push to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels for "the preservation of our home planet."

Solar Panels ate represented as being completely sustainable, such claims often gloss over – or worse, ignore – the very real damage caused through the production and use of this technology.

Maybe Solar PV panels don't need to be abandoned outright, but  a more honest, and realistic conversation needs to be had about them. 

By 2050, there could be 80 million metric tons globally of solar photovoltaics (PV) reaching the end of their lifetime, with 10 million metric tons in the United States alone — or the weight of 30 Empire State Buildings.

We are NOT trying to stop ALL solar farms.

However we do believe they should not be built next to or in view of residential houses, on prime farm land, in areas that will cause soil erosion or have an adverse effect on wildlife, streams or anywhere else that would interfere with the natural scenic beauty of our countryside.

The Department of Public Health has concerns over the presence of the chemical PFAS in solar panels that will be installed near a watershed area that supplies drinking water, but the unnamed solar company has not answered the department’s questions.

During a Nov. 3 meeting of the Connecticut Water Planning Council, Lori Mathieu, chief of the CWPC Drinking Water Section of the DPH, said they were receiving “push back” on their questions related to PFAS and solar panels.

In April 2019, an unexpected explosion of batteries on fire in an Arizona energy storage facility injured eight firefighters. More than a year before that fire, FEMA awarded a Fire Prevention and Safety (FP&S), Research and Development (R&D) grant to the University of Texas at Austin to address firefighter concerns about safety when responding to fires in battery energy storage systems of all sizes. Engineers, firefighters, and other industry partners are working to develop a better understanding of the magnitude of the fire hazards. 

Solar panels have been heralded as the alternative to fossil fuels for decades. Most readers have likely seen exciting headlines claiming we could power the world's energy demands multiple times were we simply to cover the Sahara Desert with a solar farm the size of China. The fact that such endeavors would be unsustainable due to their size and the sheer amount of maintenance required or that the necessary infrastructure to bring this energy all around the world is simply unimaginable is irrelevant to those who dream of a solar future.