Editor,

I agree with the West Penn Township supervisors regarding their concerns about the end-of-life for solar panels.

Solar panels now generate a significant portion of electricity globally but this low-carbon power source is a disaster waiting to happen.

Most solar panels have a life span of around 30 years. Millions of tons of these panels will soon reach the end of their working lives.

Today’s recycling methods for these panels are inefficient and rarely used.

This is a huge problem. Toxic materials, like lead, are in solar panels and can pollute the environment. Many panels, however, are simply thrown into landfills when they die.

Although the solar panels also contain valuable materials that could be reused to make new ones, these are mostly wasted. These materials are present in small amounts and current processes for extracting them are too costly to make extraction worthwhile.

Even though solar power is an environmentally friendly power source, it poses significant environmental risks after the panels die.

JoAnn Paslawsky

Tamaqua