Re:Understanding Solar Energy
by ben_w on Friday March 21, 2025 @04:47AM
(#43433254)
The resources all start off chemically bound in rocks that aren't famous for spontaneously generating or storing electricity.
I don't see it being meaningfully more expensive to process smashed up old PV or batteries than starting from the natural state, and my expectation is that it would be easier.
The exception would be if some of the chemical pathways turn into low-concentration atmospheric gasses that then diffuse all over the world, which is how we got the problem with CO2 (and unrelated problems with CFCs).
I don't see it being meaningfully more expensive to process smashed up old PV or batteries than starting from the natural state, and my expectation is that it would be easier.
The exception would be if some of the chemical pathways turn into low-concentration atmospheric gasses that then diffuse all over the world, which is how we got the problem with CO2 (and unrelated problems with CFCs).