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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote] PERTH, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Australia will offer at least three hours of free solar power every day to households including those without solar panels under an energy-saving programme that is expected to go live in 2026, energy minister Chris Bowen said on Tuesday.
The Solar Sharer programme will begin in the states of New South Wales and South Australia as well as southeast Queensland before it is expanded elsewhere[/quote]
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/australia-offer-three-hours-free-solar-per-day-millions-2025-11-04/

Australia generates too much electricity during peak times for solar. The huge increase in residential solar installations has created a record drop in demand during peak generation times. They hope this will shift how residential power use during the day.

Unlike here where we have to pay for data centers![/quote]

Australian has about the same land mass of America with 10% of the population.

Not gonna happen in the US. [/quote]

Do you know how much empty land there is in the southwest/nevada/Utah?[/quote]

It’s not “empty land”. Things live there. Plants and animals that are found nowhere else.

You think we should pave it over with solar panels and kill everything living there so you can charge your EV? [/quote]

You can install solar over parking lots. If you installed solar over just large parking lot in the US you could generate 1,500 to 4,400 TWh. That would be about a 1/4 of the large parking lot in the US.[/quote]

Panels made of toxic materials and REM’s mined by slaves and children. That’s the answer? And when they’re worn out in 20-30 years, they’re $$$$$$$$ to safely recycle because of the hazmats.

This is the solution? [/quote]

Wrong on so many points.

1. Solar panels are not made of exotic toxic cocktails or “slave-mined” rare earth minerals.

Mainstream solar panels (over 95% of global production) are made of sand-derived silicon, aluminum frames, tempered glass, and small amounts of common metals (silver, copper).

Rare earth elements (REEs are different from “rare minerals”) are not used in standard silicon solar panels.

Thin-film panels use trace amounts of materials like cadmium telluride, but they are encapsulated and stable, not freely floating toxins.

The “slaves and children” claim is usually borrowed from cobalt mining narratives, but cobalt is used in some batteries, not in solar panels. The solar panel supply chain is well-documented and far less tied to conflict mining than fossil fuels.

2. Fossil fuel extraction is massively more toxic, destructive, and dangerous than solar manufacturing.

Oil and gas extraction releases benzene, methane, VOCs, radioactive brine, pipeline spills, refinery pollution, and thousands of premature deaths annually.

Coal ash ponds and oil spills dwarf the hazard profile of the solar industry by orders of magnitude.

Solar manufacturing has environmental impact, but fractional compared to the continuous toxic output of burning fossil fuels every single day.

3. Solar panel recycling is improving rapidly, and even today it is not "$$$$$$$$" to recycle.

Solar panels last 30–40+ years in real-world use, not 20.

They are mostly glass and aluminum, which are cheap to recycle.

Advanced recycling facilities (US, EU, Japan) recover:

95%+ of glass

99% of metals

As panel volume grows, recycling becomes even cheaper (just like metals or e-waste did).

Right now, many old panels are actually re-sold on secondary markets, not landfilled.

4. Solar already produces the cheapest power on Earth with the lowest environmental impact per kWh.

Solar has the lowest lifecycle emissions of any energy source, even lower than nuclear and wind.

Panels pay back their manufacturing energy in 1–2 years and then deliver 30–40 years of clean power.

Fossil fuels never pay back; they pollute more the longer you use them.

5. If "toxicity" is your concern, fossil fuels are the last thing you can defend.

Solar panels have:

No combustion

No particulate pollution

No continuous toxic byproducts

No tailpipe emissions

No spills, fracking contamination, or refinery carcinogens

Fossil fuels have all of those, continuously.

Bottom Line:

Solar panels aren’t made of rare earths, aren’t dependent on child labor, aren’t toxic time bombs, and aren’t hard to recycle. They’re mostly glass, aluminum, and silicon, and they replace the most harmful industrial system humans have ever created.

The “solar panels are toxic and un-recyclable” meme is simply fossil fuel propaganda, not based in science or fact.[/quote]

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