Affect on the Biosphere

1. Affect on the Biosphere • Types of Panels • Problems with Manufacturing • Mining/Mineral Production • Current Events • Future

2. Types of Panels • Three types of silicon cells • Monocrystalline • Polycrystalline • Amorphous • Thin Film • Cadmium telluride • Copper indium gallium selenide • Gallium arsenide multi-junction

3. Problems with Manufacturing • little attention is currently paid to the environmental and health costs of the rapidly expanding solar industry; that "most widely used solar PV panels are based on materials and processes from the microelectronics industry" which could cause an avalanche of e-waste at the end of their productive lifetime of 20-25 years; and that many of the newest panels with higher rates of efficiency use "extremely toxic materials with unknown health and environmental risks.“

4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=Id2ukX_J-EEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=Id2ukX_J-EE

5. Problems with Manufacturing • CdTe • Very limited supply of Tellurium and unknown quantities of the metal estimated around 800 metric tons • Interestingly Tellurium is very abundant in space • One gigawatt (GW) of CdTe PV modules would require about 93 metric tons (at current efficiencies and thicknesses),[35]. • Cadmium is very toxic and is banned by EU regulations

6. Mining/Mineral Production • Cadmium Cadmium is a lustrous, silver-white, ductile, very malleable metal. Its surface has a bluish tinge and the metal is soft enough to be cut with a knife, but it tarnishes in air. It is soluble in acids but not in alkalis. It is similar in many respects to zinc but it forms more complex compounds. No cadmium ore is mined for the metal, because more than enough is produced as a byproduct of the smelting of zinc from its ore, sphelerite (ZnS), in which CdS is a significant impurity, making up as much as 3%. Consequently, the main mining areas are those associated with zinc. World production is around 14.000 tones per year, the main producing country is Canada, with the USA, Australia, Mexico, Japan and Peru also being the major suppliers. Cadmium strongly adsorbs to organic matter in soils. When cadmium is present in soils it can be extremely dangerous, as the uptake through food will increase. Soils that are acidified enhance the cadmium uptake by plants. This is a potential danger to the animals that are dependent upon the plants for survival. Cadmium can accumulate in their bodies, especially when they eat multiple plants.

7. Mining/Mineral Production • Tellurium Tellurium is a semi metallic, lustrous, crystalline, brittle, silver-white element. It is usually available as a dark grey powder, it has the properties both of the metals and the non metals. Tellurium forms many compounds corresponding to those of sulfur and selenium. Tellurium production is mainly a byproduct of copper processing. Fortunately, tellurium compounds are encountered rarely by most people. They are teratogenic and should only be handled by competent chemists since ingestion in even small amounts causes dreadful smelling breath and appalling body odor. Causes little environmental impact

8. Mining/Mineral Production • Copper World production of copper amounts to 12 million tons a year and exploitable reserves are around 300 million tons, which are expected to last for only another 25 years. About 2 million tons a year are reclaimed by recycling. Today copper is mined as major deposits in Chile, Indonesia, USA, Australia and Canada, which together account for around 80% of the world's copper. The main ore is a yellow copper-iron sulfide called chalcopyrite (CuFeS2). Industrial exposure to copper fumes, dusts, or mists may result in metal fume fever with atrophic changes in nasal mucous membranes. Chronic copper poisoning results in Wilson’s Disease, characterized by a hepatic cirrhosis, brain damage, demyelization, renal disease, and copper deposition in the cornea. Coppers major effect on the environment is that it can contaminate soils for farming and makes it difficult for plants to grow.

9. Mining/Mineral Production • Indium Indium is a soft, ductile, malleable, lustrous metallic metal. Its color is silvery white and it has a face-centered tetragonal structure. It is liquid over a wide range of temperatures, like gallium that belongs to its same group. Indium produced in industry comes as the by-product of smelting zinc and lead sulfide ores, some of which can contain 1% indium. Specimens of uncombined indium metal have been found in a region of Russia and an indium mineral, indite, has been found in Siberia, but it is rare. World production comes mainly from Canada and is around 75 tones per year, reserves of the metal are estimated to exceed 1500 tones. Indium is rare and little is known about the health effects or environmental effects.

10. Mining/Mineral Production • Gallium Solid gallium is a blue-gray metal with orthorhombic crystalline structure; very pure gallium has a stunning silvery color. Gallium is solid at normal room temperatures, but as well as mercury, cesium, and rubidium it becomes liquid when heated slightly. Gallium does not exist in pure form in nature, and gallium compounds are not a primary source of extraction. Gallium is more abundant than lead but much less accessible because it has not been selectively concentrated into minerals by any geological process, so it tends to be widely dispersed. Several ores, such as the aluminum ore bauxite, contain small amount of gallium, and coal may have a relatively high gallium content. Gallium has little affect of human health and the environment.

11. Mining/Mineral Production • Selenium Selenium is a non metallic chemical element and in chemical activity and physical properties it resembles sulfur and tellurium. Selenium is among the rarer elements on the surface of this planet, and is rarer than silver. Selenium is present in the atmosphere as metyl derivatives. Uncombined selenium is occasionally found and there are around 40 known selenium-conaining minerals, some of which can have as much as 30% selenium - but all are rare and generally they occur together with sulfides of metals such as copper, zinc and lead. The main producing countries are Canada, USA, Bolivia and Russia. Global industrial production of selenium is around 1500 tonnes a year The health effects of various forms of selenium can vary from brittle hair and deformed nails, to rashes, heat, swelling of the skin and severe pains. When selenium ends up in the eyes people experience burning, irritation and tearing. Selenium generally has mild effect on the environment However there is evidence selenium can accumulate in the body tissues of organisms and can than be passed up through the food chain. Usually this bio magnification of selenium starts when animals eat a lot of plants that have been absorbing large amounts of selenium, prior to digestion. Due to irrigation run-off concentrations of selenium tend to be very high in aquatic organisms in many areas.When animals absorb or accumulate extremely high concentrations of selenium it can cause reproductive failure and birth defects.

12. Mining/Mineral Production • Silicon a metalloid with a marked metallic luster and very brittle. It is usually tetravalent in its compounds, although sometimes its bivalent, and it’s purely electropositive in its chemical behavior. Sand is used as source of the silicon produced commercially. A few siliate minerals are mined, e.g. talc and mica. Silicon crystalline irritates the skin and eyes on contact. Inhalation will cause irritation to the lungs and mucus membrane. Irritation to the eyes will cause watering and redness. Reddening, scaling, and itching are characteristics of skin inflammation. Lung cancer is associated with occupational exposures to crystalline silica specifically quartz and cristobalite. An exposure-response relationship has been reported in studies of miners, diatomaceous earth workers, granite workers, pottery workers, refractory brick workers, and other workers No known threat to the environment

13. Current Events • Selenium pollution in WV from mountain top removal mining causing fish in river • “We're killing fish right now with selenium pollution from mountaintop removal mining. Toxic levels of selenium were found in 73 of 78 stream samples. The threat is expanding as use of this destructive process expands. Once these ecosystems are polluted, damage to the environment is permanent,” • In China the Hechi region a large Cadmium spill leaked into a river • "The once-green river turned black around Jan. 10 and many small fish died. In the following days, more fish died,” • As of Feb. 2, about 40,000 kg of adult fish had died in Hechi alone, the pollution jeopardized water supplies for the 1.5 million residents of Liuzhou.

14. The Future • Reduce and eventually eliminate the use of toxic materials and develop environmentally sustainable practices • Ensure that solar PV manufacturers are responsible for the lifecycle impacts of their products through Extended Producer Responsibility • Ensure proper testing of new and emerging materials based on a precautionary approach • Expand recycling technology and design products for easy recycling • Promote high-quality 'green jobs' that protect worker health and safety and provide a living wage throughout the global PV industry • Protect community health and safety throughout the global PV industry, including supply chains and end-of-life recycling

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