Are there risks of any poisons or chemicals from the solar panels leaking into the water system over time?

▲ pixl97 a day ago | parent | next [-]

Are there any risks of mercury settling into the water system over time from coal power plants?

Are there risks of heavy metal and tire contaminates from vehicles leaking into the water system over time?

Are there risks of dust blown contamination from the megatons of shit humans leave everywhere we go leaking into the water system?

The answer is everything has risks, the risks from solar panels are unbelievably tiny in relation to all other pollution sources and I have to deal with a bunch of redneck solar panel haters that have bought in to massively overblown risks around them.

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scun a day ago | parent | next [-]

Risks? Hah! You don't want to worry about that. You want to worry about the municipal tire fire and the radioactive slag pit!

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nonethewiser a day ago | parent | prev [-]

False binary

	▲	pixl97 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		There was no binary at all. There are a lot of different things you have to look at, many not even directly related to what you're talking about.

▲ culi a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A small risk according to this nature study. Especially in tropical environments where humidity is already high.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-021-00693-8

https://sci-hub.ru/10.1038/s41893-021-00693-8

But more importantly it found that these solar panels are replacing diesel generators that pose a much larger pollution risk so water quality actually improved.

▲ swingandamiss a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Maybe, but ideas like that are what you all will use to eventually turn against solar and seek to ban going off grid as you see a disparity between those who can afford to buy solar and those who can't. Why's that a problem? Those who can will go off grid and those who can't will be left on a grid that they can't pay for, and it will crumble. We are already seeing the beginnings of this in California.

▲ defrost a day ago | parent | next [-]

Off grid? That's one way to go.

  Australia is leading the world in rooftop solar adoption. By June 2025, 4.2 million rooftop solar systems had been installed nationwide  representing 26.8 gigawatts of clean power generation capacity connected directly to local electricity networks that serve homes and businesses.

   “In the evenings homes typically consume power, which flows from large power generation plants, such as wind farms, hydroelectric, coal and gas-fired power plants. Let’s call this the ‘low-tide’ time in local electricity grid operation,” he said.

  “In the middle of a sunny day, however, today about 40% of Australian homes generate their own power from rooftop solar panels. When the rooftop solar generation exceeds the power consumption in the houses, the excess power is ‘exported’, flowing back to the grid, supplying other homes and beyond. Let’s call this the ‘high-tide’ time in local electricity grid operation.”

~ https://www.csiro.au/en/news/all/articles/2025/october/ocean...

Grids are useful to balance out sources and sinks, make battery farms economical at scale. You do need smarter grids to deal with phase imbalances.

▲ multjoy a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Have you seen the price of solar?

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swingandamiss a day ago | parent [-]

Yup, it's dropping dropping dropping. But it's still out of range for most.

	▲	fragmede a day ago \| parent [-]
		Housing is out of range for most, but hopefully regulations will change to allow for balcony solar, which means that renters would be able to buy a tiny bit to offset their costs, and move it to their next place.

▲ thakoppno a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This hacker entered the thread thinking this was a good idea but leaves muttering “man, things are complicated.”

▲ cco a day ago | parent | prev [-]

No, this is a right wing talking point against solar that isn't based in fact.

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culi a day ago | parent | next [-]

It's definitely brought up by anti-solar crowds. It's more accurate to point out that the risk is small rather than to dismiss the genuine concern. Solar panels can actually increase water quality because they replace diesel generators according to this nature article

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-021-00693-8

The concern is not completely unwarranted:

> Because over-canal systems are subject to a more humid environment than ground-mounted systems, over-canal PV panels might have increased reliability problems45. In tropical conditions, the water content in the encapsulant can exceed solubility, which can lead to the formation of droplets of water in the modules, sometimes causing corrosion or other problems

But overall "field experiments have shown that CdTe semiconductors can withstand hot and humid environments."

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cco 21 hours ago | parent [-]

That article, and your quote, doesn't seem to support your pushback.

Of course, if a solar panel is broken, ground up and falls into a canal, it would put some heavy metals into the water.

The risk is basically zero and far lower than any other power generation source. It is a nonsense, bad faith "concern".

	▲	culi 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You're more likely to convince someone by pointing out the valid parts of their concerns than to outright dismiss them as rightwingers.

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reenorap an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

WTF? People aren't allowed to ask genuine questions anymore before being labeled politically? You are absolutely fucked by politics, not everything is left or right.