Alasdair Martin

[Peter Clack @PeterDClack]

Landfill is becoming the default graveyard for the fading renewable-energy green dream.

Millions of solar panels are already hitting their end-of-life cycle, and the world is completely unprepared for the toxic avalanche due in 2030. By 2050, the International Renewable Energy Agency says it will get much worse, with more than 200 million tonnes of cumulative solar panel waste globally. Plus, there will be additional tens of millions of tonnes of decommissioned wind turbine components. Turbine blades are virtually indestructible.

The industry has claimed solar panels and turbines were ‘95% recyclable’. Technically, they are—because they are made of glass, aluminium, and copper. But the reality is a different story. In the US, it costs roughly $20 to $30 to properly disassemble and recycle a single panel, compared to just $1 to $5 to dump it in a landfill.

Because there is little financial incentive to disassemble and recycle parts, around 90% of decommissioned panels in the US and a large share of turbine blades worldwide go straight into the ground.

These devices are highly complex. A solar panel is an industrial ‘sandwich’ bound tightly by heavy polymers. Extracting the microscopic amounts of valuable silver and high-purity silicon requires energy-intensive chemical and thermal processing.

When crushed or left to fracture in landfills, heavy metals like lead and cadmium leach into surrounding soil and groundwater, turning ‘clean energy’ into a multi-generational hazardous waste problem.

The crisis is accelerating faster than models ever predicted. As solar cells degrade and newer, cheaper panels hit the market, consumers and solar farms are ripping out functional systems a decade early to repower and upgrade.

The dream of renewable energy from sunlight and wind has, in reality, created an endless loop of unrecyclable industrial trash.

[Ed Conway @EdConwaySky]

📽️ From Donald Trump to Britain's wind power trade body, there's a growing coalition calling for more drilling in the North Sea.
Raising the question: if we DID encourage more exploration, how much oil & gas could we actually get?
Our MEGA primer on the North Sea👇
Ps it's longer than usual, but it turns out this topic has SO MANY misconceptions. Time to put some of them right.
Let me know what you think

[Loganair @FlyLoganair]

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[Bernie @Artemisfornow]

Norway is reopening “dead” North Sea oil fields using new technology. Britain, sitting on the same stuff can’t touch it.

We shut down domestic energy, import it at huge cost & higher emissions, and think we’re changing the climate.

embarrassing 🤡

[Catherine McBride OBE @CeeMacBee]

The Telegraph: 'About 180 of the UK’s 280 fields are set to close by 2030 and the offshore sector is losing 1,000 jobs a month. In the last 12 months, Britain spent £20.6bn buying oil and gas from Norway.

It means the UK’s reliance on imports is growing fast. Government modelling suggests that the UK will still need nearly 40 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year in 2035, plus 40 million tonnes of oil products.

However, the UK’s own gas production will be down from 30bcm to 7bcm on current trends while oil is set to fall from 35 million tonnes to just 13 million.

It means the UK will be 80pc dependent on imports – mainly from Norway and the US.'
🤦‍♀️
https://t.co/6giw3ZZfMA

[Steve Loftus @LoftusSteve]

I wonder when Governments will realise that we are paying Norway to sell us gas that come from the same fields in the North Sea that we refuse to exploit.

All so we can pretend we are virtuous.

[Alasdair Martin @OllyMartin22]

No shopping @LookersVolvo Glasgow, can’t get a vehicle near the place. Sort your forecourt out. Shambles #nosale #shopelsewhere

[DONALD ROSS @vaderbogger]

Dear @RachelReevesMP @Jamie4North speaking as quite a good one man band farmer.

In 2024 I will have contributed nearly £50000 in tax the treasury. I also produce barley which has a tax take of £1.8m and wheat which has a tax take of £4.5m when turned into whisky (all per annum)

[Nick's Weather Eye @NickJF75]

No top story mention of #StormÉowyn on @BBCNews website + other major news outlets - even though arrives in 24 hours and peoples' lives are in danger if they are unaware it's on the way! Madness the priorities of stories in the news. Is it because it's not affecting SE England?

[🤍𝕁𝕆🤍 @jomickane]

Wtaf 😯 how much money does the Government make off 1 tonne of barley?

[𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐗🐦‍🔥𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐎𝐍 @XPHOENIXDRAGON]

⚠️ She breaks it down perfectly❗️

[Paul Weston @PWestoff]

We are witnessing a Communist coup in Britain.

A farm valued at £4 million (land, buildings and machinery) might return a profit of only 50-100k per annum. Some years, it will make a loss.

The Labour government has just announced a 20% inheritance on the value of farms, which amounts to £800,000 payable (on a £4M farm) after the death of the farmer.

His children will be unable to pay this astronomical sum of money, so they will have to sell the farm. But no one will want to buy the farm because of the future inheritance tax issue.

What will happen? Friends of the government will buy it cheaply and convert it into a solar farm. After a couple of decades of useless energy production the land will be contaminated and can be re-zoned as a brownfield site and sold as building land.

The government will be very happy. Lots of politicians will become very rich. Farmers will no longer exist and the average person will be unable to buy the expensive imported food British farmers once provided cheaply.

I'm not sure people fully understand what is actually happening in England. If they did, there would be a million sturdy yeoman armed with pitchforks surrounding parliament next week.

[Alasdair Martin @OllyMartin22]

@Ian_Fraser 🤯 when they realise the ink in their books uses oil as an additive……

[Kenneth MacRae @kmacraeplockton]

Every single ward in the Highlands showing a significant decrease in children.
Every ward in the Highlands but 1 showing a significant increase in share of population over 65.
A disaster for the area, a disaster for Scotland.

[LBC @LBC]

'Why don't you put the smuggler gangs on the barge and ship it to Scotland for all I care?'

Criticising the government's Rwanda plan, @joshsimonstweet has a solution for the 'small boats crisis' if Labour win the next election.

@IainDale

[NHS Western Isles @NHSWI]

Lyme disease is spread by ticks and can be a serious condition if not treated early. If you find one on your body, remove the whole tick carefully. If you get a red circular rash on your skin, or develop flu-like symptoms visit your GP or https://t.co/turOBJVZHc for more info.

[BBC ALBA @bbcalba]

Thàinig na fir bho na Còisirean gu lèir ri chèile airson urram eireachdail a' thoirt dha Kirsteen Menzies 🤍

[Alasdair Martin @OllyMartin22]

@CP_IsleofHarris Yes, heart stopped a few times watching that.
Musically, also try Under the Volcano or Whiplash.