Solar panels are consistently characterized as non-hazardous under the EPA's Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) which tests leaching of toxic chemicals.
While solar panels are considered a form of clean, renewable energy, the manufacturing process does produce greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, to produce solar panels, manufacturers need to handle toxic chemicals. However, solar panels are not emitting toxins into the atmosphere as they generate electricity.
The materials used in making thin film solar panels can be toxic. These toxic chemicals are introduced into the environment in two stages of a solar panel's lifespan – production and disposal. During production, these chemicals are gathered, manipulated, heated, cooled, and a plethora of other processes which involve human beings in every step.
Are 'hazardous chemicals' in solar panels dangerous?
One of the arguments they make most often involves “hazardous chemicals” in solar panels. One chemical often maligned is Cadmium Telluride, (CdTe).
Power companies that own coal, oil, and natural gas power plants stand to lose money if consumers install solar and thus generate their own power, so they have organized extensive lobbying against solar. They suggest solar panels contain dangerous chemicals and that solar panels cause pollution. What are solar panels actually made of?
In 2019, The New York Times NYT -0.1% published a long article about toxic old solar panels and batteries causing “harm to people who scavenge recyclable materials by hand” in poor African communities. In 2020, Discover DISCA 0.0% magazine confirmed that “it is often cheaper to discard them in landfills or send them to developing countries.
“Contrary to previous assumptions, pollutants such as lead or carcinogenic cadmium can be almost completely washed out of the fragments of solar modules over several months, for example, by rainwater, making it possible for different bodies of water to be contaminated.” These chemicals don't appear in modern aluminum-frame solar panels.