Shooting the Moon with "Solar Waste"

I wanted to take a little time to address a recent concern by opponents of solar energy. Solar Waste. Journalist Jason Dearen at the Associated Press drew attention to the fact that solar energy production does indeed have waste, and that the problem lies in the fact that it needs to be hauled out of State to waste treatment facilities. But before you start selling your solar stocks and ripping the panels of your roof, let me put things into perspective.

"If solar were to produce the same amount of electricity as coal is today, the solar waste would be less than five hundredth (0.2%) of the total amount of coal hauled around the country today"

Dearen highlights the problem in waste water and "toxic sludge" as he calls it, although later admitting that "there was no evidence it has harmed human health". A problem he sees to point out is that 46 million pounds of waste is produced in the nation's leading solar manufacturing State, California, 1.4 million of which goes out of the State to other waste facilities.

Solar:
So that's 46 million pounds (23,000 short tons). 700 tons of these went out of California State from 2007 to beginning of 2011. Thus on average in that period, 155 tons of waste went out of the State per year.

Coal:
In 2011, the US produced 42% of its electricity from coal. Over 1.1 billion tons (2,200,000,000,000 pounds) of coal were produced that year of which approx 100 million tons were exported. Out of this coal came 130 million tons of Coal Combustion Residuals (or Coal Ash).

So lets compare the numbers: 
An average coal train carries about 150 cars each carrying 143 tons of coal, meaning that every year over 51,000 full train loads of coal are driven across the United States. According to a publication by the University of Texas in Austin, the average coal haul distance in 1980 was 275 miles. Assuming this figure has remained roughly the same, the astounding result is that coal is hauled approximately 303 billion ton-miles every year.

In effect, it means that the total distance that coal was hauled in the US in 2011, was the equivalent of transporting all of California's 155 tons of exported solar waste to the moon and back again. Not one time. But 4,000 times! 4,000 trips to the moon and back again! Now can we talk about coal again?

Even if solar were to produce the same amount of electricity as coal today, the equivalent amount of solar waste would be less than five hundredth (0.2%) of the total amount of coal produced and burned today,not even accounting for the remaining 130 million tons of coal ash and coal sludge left over after combustion.

Assuming For 150-car coal trains with 5 locomotives each, the distance traveled by coal-hauling locomotives is 1.5 trillion(!) miles per year. Using the industry's own conservative gallons per ton-mile mileages figure, replacing coal production with solar would save the equivalent amount of hauling fuel as taking 1.7 million cars off the streets. A little unrelated but consider also that stopping the burning of coal entirely would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of taking 715 million cars of the road, three times the entire US car fleet!

In Dearen's defense, he did shortly mention that solar is significantly cleaner than fossil fuels, but I wanted to tell you exactly how significant. Solar is very clean. Although there are byproducts in production, like any other product, the amount of waste is infinitesimal in relation to the toxic sludge of coal ash, sulfur, phosphor and volatile particles released not only in the burning but in the transportation of coal in the US.

I want to make clear that I am not saying we should not pay attention to solar waste, but lets get our priorities in order here, and deal with the big issues first. More solar means less waste.


Solar for Everyone!


Andreas Nicolet
www.solarnodes.com
ACNicolet@Twitter.com
SolarNodes@Twitter.com
facebook.com/SolarNodes

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Sources & appendix:
http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/CRS_Rpt_R42847.pdfhttp://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/sec7_5.pdf
http://www.coaltrainfacts.org/docs/Key-Facts-booklet.pdf
http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_1_1_a
http://www.sciencebuzz.org/blog/freight-train-miles-gallon
http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=307&t=11

A few facts on Coal Ash
From the Physicians for Social Responsibility: http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/coal-ash.pdf

"Coal ash is the second-largest industrial waste stream in the U.S., after mining wastes."

"Coal ash commonly contains some of the world’s deadliest toxic metals: arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium and selenium [which] can cause cancer and neurological damage in humans. They can also harm and kill wildlife..."

"Coal ash is disposed in approximately 2,000 dump sites across the nation: at least 629 wet ash ponds and 311 dry landfills at power stations, at least 100 offsite dry landfills, and 750 inactive dumps, and hundreds of abandoned and active mines (as fill)"

Picture: In 2008, an earthen wall holding back a huge coal ash disposal pond failed at the coal-fired power plant in Kingston, Tennessee. The 40-acre pond spilled more than 1 billion gallons of coal ash slurry into the adjacent river valley, covering some 300 acres with thick, toxic sludge and destroying three homes.