The President's Daily Brief - December 26th, 2022. Dirty Green Energy: Solar Panels

Episode Date: December 26, 2022

It’s December 26th. You’re listening to the President’s Daily Brief. Your morning intel starts now. ------ I’ve got an update, my friends. A Dirty Green Update. For folks new to the podcast, you might not know what that is. But I bet you’ve heard about Green Energy, or Renewable Energy. Yes, we’re talking about solar panels and wind turbines. Plus the batteries that store and distribute all of that energy. And of course who could forget electric vehicles in this Green Revolution!  But — and there’s always a but — how green is that green energy?  That’s not a question we hear asked much is it? Instead, we hear about dirty oil, dirty coal, and dirty natural gas. The argument goes that they’re all dirty because of their terrible environmental records. Their ties to foreign dictators. And, of course, their causing of climate change.  But what about Green Energy? Is it really green, clean, or renewable?  Well that’s what we’re digging into all this week. It’s an update and a refresh on my five part series of whether this new energy revolution is really the picture of purity that we are so often told / or rather are there dirty secrets that people would prefer we not talk about.  ------ Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief. Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You're listening to the President's Daily Brief. I'm your host and former CIA officer Brian Dean Wright. Your morning intel starts now. I've got an update, my friends. It's a dirty green update. For folks new to the podcast, you might not know what that is, but I bet you have heard about green energy or renewable energy. Yeah, we're talking about solar panels and wind turbines,

plus the batteries that store and distribute all that energy. And, of course, who can forget the electric vehicles in this green revolution. But, and there's always a but, how green is that green energy? And that's not a question that we hear asked very often, is it? Instead, we hear about dirty oil or dirty coal or dirty natural gas.

And the argument goes that they're also very dirty and bad because of their terrible environmental records or their ties to foreign dictators and, of course, their causing of climate change. But what about green energy? Is it really, you know, or clean or renewable? Well, that's what we're going to be digging into all this week.

It's an update and a refresh on my five-part series of whether this new energy revolution is really the picture of purity that we are all so very often told, or rather, are there dirty secrets that people would prefer that we not talk about? And I'll spoil things just a little bit by giving you the bottom line up front. It's not green. It's not clean, and it is not renewable. and that is why I call it and why we should all call it dirty green energy. Now before we begin, one very important thing to keep in mind, this five-part series is not designed

to specially denigrate solar wind or electric vehicles, nor is it to demand that you or anyone else refuse to buy, say, a Tesla or no more solar panels for your house. Instead, this series is designed to scrutinize this new form of energy no differently than we do for oil and gas and coal. And by doing so, I give you the facts and the data so that you can make the best decision for you and your family about whether to buy into it and, most importantly, whether the country should buy into it. All right?

Sound fair? Let's get to it. Let's talk about some dirty green energy. And let's kick this thing off today with solar panels. So here's how we're going to start. I want you to imagine you've decided to install solar panels on your roof. but ask yourself where did that panel come from and i don't mean your local installer i mean the panel itself it's origin story if you will well to answer that question we have to disassemble the panel

we have to remove the frame take apart the big black shiny glass module and then look at the individual solar cells but you have to actually keep going deeper deeper into those individual cells because they all had a chemical birth so the material that we're talking about here is that we're talking about here is called polysilicon. To understand this key ingredient and frankly this complicated process, let's talk about something that we all know, making bread.

And of course, when you make bread, you start with the dough. Well, with solar panels and those individual cells, your dough is the polysilicon. This material is made through a very complex, sometimes dangerous process named after a German company. It's called the Siemens process.

And I won't bore you with the intricate details of making this polysilicon dough, but here's what you need to know. It takes a lot of energy and scientific know-how to make that polysilicon. For a long time, only European and American companies knew how to do it well. It was a trade secret. Then in about the year 2006, there was an Italian man who used to work for an American company. He made a deal with a Chinese firm called the Dequang Group.

He agreed to tell them how to make this secret polysilicon dough in exchange for a different kind of dough. Big piles of cash. Now, he wasn't supposed to, but he did it anyway. That's according to reporting from the National Public Radio back in July of 2021. Regardless, the result of what he did was the birth of a global solar revolution. Because China could suddenly dominate the market. Not because of that Siemens dough process necessarily, although that was very critical. Rather, because the Chinese company, DeKuan, added two new ingredients.

very cheap electricity and very cheap labor. So here's that story. So do me a favor. Pull out a map of China and take a look at that far western region. It's called Xinjiang. And it's got two things in abundance. First, coal-fired electricity plants. In fact, some of the greatest concentration of both coal and coal plants in the world are in

Xinjiang. And along with it, as you would expect, some very cheap energy. Now, the second thing that Xinjiang has is slaves living in concentration camps. According to the United Nations and others like the U.S. State Department, the communists in Beijing have enslaved a group of their own people called the Uighurs. They're ethnically different from other groups in China. They look different. They have a distinct culture, and they're Muslim as compared to the rest of the atheist Chinese people.

Well, all of that cheap energy and slave labor living in concentration camps was like rocket fuel for the manufacturing industry in that part of China. They now create all kinds of cheap products from clothing to Christmas decorations, and yes, the polysilicon dough that is the foundation of creating solar panels. So to demonstrate the point, I have a question for you, a little bit of a fun quiz. I want you to guess how much of the world's supply of polysilicon comes from China? Because actually, if we knew that, it would help us answer part of the big question for why we're here. how dirty is green energy.

Well, according to data from the U.S. Geological Service and Bloomberg News, 75 to 80% of the world's supply of polysilicon comes from that one region of China, powered by coal and made by slaves. And by the way, if you're wondering about America, well, the United States, we produce around 3% of the world's polysilicon supply. Okay, so now that we have the foundation, of our solar panel, the polysilicon dough, I want you to imagine that you've put that dough in the oven

and you're baking your loaf of polysilicon. Well, that loaf is called an ingot in the manufacturing world, but just like a loaf of bread, you have to slice it up to enjoy it. When you slice an ingot, you get something called wafers, and then with a bit more manufacturing, you get individual solar cells. What's important to know is that this manufacturing process

of baking and slicing our solar bread, it's very energy intensive. And again, that's why the cheap coal plants and slaves in Xinjiang China are so important for solar panels. But if you thought that all that was bad, oh, it gets so much worse. So not only does Beijing control about 80% of the world's polysilicon supply, again, those loaves of bread. They also control over 90% of the wafers and 85% of the solar cells. Again, the slices of bread. data, by the way, is according to Bloomberg news analysis from last year.

So what I'm trying to say here, folks, is that in addition to controlling the manufacturing process for solar panels, we've got a foreign power controlling the supply of our solar energy. It's no different than, say, an Arab dictatorship controlling the oil supply. But we've got to keep going. It keeps even getting dirtier. To continue with our baking analogy, so now that we have our solar cells, all those slices of bread, we have to stick them together into sheets, kind of like squishing slices of bread together side by side. That creates something called the solar modules. Those are, at least for our

purposes, kind of the end product, more or less, because of course we need a metal frame to put it all together, keep it from falling apart. But the point here is that China controls the module market as well, about 82% of the world supply. And as ever, America controls very little of the module manufacturing process, only about 10% or so, at least according to Bloomberg News and Wall Street Journal reporting. All right. Lots of facts and data this morning. So let's pause for a moment and recap.

We now know that upwards of 80% of the world's polysilicon supply comes from China. Meanwhile, over 90% of the wafers are from there as well. Same is true with the solar cells and the modules with 82 and 85% control, respectively. And all of that, all of it, is made with coal-fired electricity, mostly by the hands of slaves living in concentration camps in the modern dictatorship that is communist China. In short, ladies and gentlemen, that means that the overwhelming supply of the world's solar panels, at least at this moment in time, are not green, they are not clean. They are dirty.

Ah, we should also remember two other dirty green environmental issues. During the manufacturing process, we have to add into our solar panels some modest amounts of copper, zinc, and silver. And all that, of course, requires mining. Well, as we all know, mining isn't green. It requires massive amounts of electricity and diesel, all from oil and coal and natural gas. So the bottom line, folks, is that before we ever put that solar panel on our roof, from the moment those things are born, we have a nasty case.

of dirty green energy. But we're not done. Oh no, it gets worse. But before we get to that, ladies and gentlemen, let's take a quick break. For my paid subscribers on the Apple platform, no ads for you, but for everybody else,

not to worry, we'll be back shortly. And when we do, I'm going to tell you even more about how dirty the global supply of solar panels really is. We'll be right back. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right. So I can tune out travel advice

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Bose.com. Welcome back to the PDB. Today we are exploring solar panels as part of our five-part series on what many people usually call green energy. But as we just covered, these technologies aren't really green at all, or at least not as green as some would have us believe. In fact, they're pretty darn dirty. And that's why we should really call this stuff dirty. Dirty. green energy. But as bad or as surprising as some of these past few minutes have been, maybe for many of us, most of us, in fact, it gets worse. As PDB listeners know, America's not supposed to import goods from that Xinjiang area in China. And that's because we all know about the forced labor of the Uyghur slaves. In fact, Joe Biden signed into law something called the Weiger

Forced Labor Prevention Act back in December of 2021. Well, as you can imagine for all of those Chinese solar panel makers, that law created a real pickle. They had to find a way to break American law and keep selling their dirty green solar panels to us and the world. So they scratched their heads and thought about how can we trick the system? How can we get around these bands? Well, they did it.

And here's how. as we now know from a U.S. Commerce Department investigation released in December of 2022, these Chinese companies did one of two things. First, they moved their end production of solar panels to the countries of Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia. Or second, they sent the finished solar panels to those same countries and just slapped the new label on them, saying, say, made in Vietnam. In other words, they just evaded the ban by switching production to new countries.

and with that they then sent those solar panels to America and Europe on ships that use diesel, by the way. And then they put those solar panels on diesel powered trains and trucks, eventually getting to your local panel installer, who then, of course, puts them on your roof. But this raises a very curious question. Since we obviously know that the Chinese are cheating, why aren't we stopping it? Well, there is one reason for that, and one reason only.

Joe Biden has decided to let it happen. Pretty remarkable. Here's what we know. Back in June, as the U.S. Commerce Department was investigating this cheating Chinese issue, Mr. Biden effectively ripped the teeth out of that investigation. What he did was he issued a declaration saying, do we have an emergency, a climate emergency. And that justified this.

Any companies in Southeast Asia caught cheating with these, cheating Chinese solar panels, lying about who they are or where they came from, nobody will be punished. No tariffs, no bans, nothing. According to CNBC reporting, senior Biden officials acknowledged doing this, but they said that they were justified in doing so. The reason why? Well, America has virtually no domestic supply chain to create these panels, which, yes, we all know now, we just covered it. So what Biden did was lots of declaration saying that we need a temporary bridge until we can develop our own industry, our own domestic solar industry, which is going to take around two years time, they said. And it's going to happen that fast

because Biden officials claim that the Inflation Reduction Act is going to get us there. As PDB listeners know, that's a new law that doesn't have, frankly, anything to do with inflation or reducing it, but rather, it's $380 billion worth of incentives and giveaways to help subsidized solar panel production here in America. But we should probably ask, is that true? In two years time, does any reasonable person in the solar industry think that we can build an entire solar panel supply chain? Well, the answer is no, there is not a chance. Industry analysts are predicting that it will take anywhere from five to 15, maybe even 20 years to build out an all-American or American-only supply chain,

from the polysilican dough to the cutting of the loaf, those ingots and the wafers, and then, of course, the final assembly of the modules and the panels themselves. So that's the deal with the devil that Mr. Biden has made.

He's allowing solar panels made by Chinese slaves and concentration camps to flood into America, all to stop climate change, and hopefully this bridge to an American-made solar industry. and yet when you talk to solar industry analysts they will tell you that it's not going to just take a couple years

it's going to take at least five upwards of 20 before we ever get there meaning and here is the key takeaway my friends china will control this dirty form of energy for years to come and it's no different than say Saudi Arabia controlling oil all right my friends let's take one more brinkly break. When we come back, we've got some more dirty facts to talk about, all centering on this next problem. What happens to those solar panels when they stop working? Because depending on the manufacturer, that can be as few as 10 years. Well, as it turns out, most of those panels go straight to your local landfill. And sometimes the toxic chemicals inside of those panels go straight into your drinking water. We'll be right back with those dirty details.

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featuring three perfume intense scents, inspired by a unique orchid accord, paired with vanilla, each with its own distinct attitude, each with its own universe, bold elixir, sensual, woody, Addictive. Magnetic elixir. Sweet and romantic like a lingering touch. Solar elixir, a radiant expression of joy. Ultra concentrated for amplified impact and lasting power. Find your euphoria. Discover the euphoria elixir collection by Calvin Klein. Welcome back to the PDB, ladies and gentlemen. Before we wrap up today's brief, we have one final dirty green fact to talk about. China solar panels have a manufacturer's

warranty of about 10 to 15 years. Better made panels can last upwards of 30 years, but it really depends on their use, their care, and damage from things like hail. But at some point, they got to come down. Their energy lives are over. But where do they go? Well, as of this moment, they get thrown away in a dump. And it is there in your local landfill that studies have shown that they leach toxic chemicals. And if that dump isn't properly sealed, those chemicals soak into the groundwater, water that will eventually we will drink or put on our lawns or irrigated crops. That's all according to an expose done by the Los Angeles Times in July of 2022, looking at the solar industry in California.

And that's especially remarkable because the Golden State has been a leader in installing solar panels for over 20 years now. So you would think that if any state were ahead of the curve on this, this, namely to build out a recycling program for these dead solar panels, well, it would be them, but it's not, and they haven't. According to the LA Times, there are now millions of solar panels set to retire in just the next couple of years in that state, and there's virtually no recycling efforts underway, at least not at scale, and the reason for that has to do with money. According to a study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, they estimate that it will cost

about $1 to $2 per solar panel to send them to a landfill. But to recycle those solar panels, that'll take $20 to $30 per panel, and you're only going to get back $2 to $4 in recycled material. So the numbers just don't pencil out for recycling. And that's why they're being dumped, even in the very super liberal state of California. But, and here is a remarkable fact, there are a handful of recycling companies in California that take solar panels, but those panels are almost exclusively trucked to Arizona,

where only some of them get recycled or others just go into a landfill there. Just to, again, emphasize something, those landfills in Arizona may or may not be sealed to prevent leaching of toxic chemicals. And that creates a deadly cesspool of chemicals that go into our soil and our drinking water or irrigated crops. and that's pretty remarkable to think about and horrifying. But you know what? That's kind of been the theme of the day, hasn't it?

Which might lead some of you to say, come on, man, is there anything positive or good about these solar panels? Well, all right, that's a fair and good question. For folks of you who live off-grid, you bet, solar panels are an important solution for you. For farmers and ranchers with isolated pastures, solar powered pumps to water your animals could be a very good thing. And actually, speaking of agriculture, there's a study underway in California to put solar panels above irrigation canals, with the idea that it might slow evaporation and also create energy.

So perhaps depending on the leaching issue, that could be, well, fairly described as an innovative or good idea. Finally, there's a lot of research underway to find different chemistries of the solar cells. the most promising, I think, is probably out of Germany involving a mineral called Parovscovite. I hope I pronounce that right. But it's not clear how much of that will actually pan out. It's just research at present. But again, let's remind ourselves of why we're here.

It's not whether solar panels are good or bad, but rather we're here to ask, are solar panels dirty? No different than dirty oil or dirty coal or dirty natural gas. and the answer based on everything that we just reviewed is yes solar panels are dirty no different than other forms of energy and that's why they're not green or clean or renewable those solar panels are part of the dirty green family and that folks ends the presentation of facts and data this morning on dirty green energy part one focused on solar panels. So let's now briefly switch gears to analysis and opinion. And I'll simply ask you a question,

are you surprised by how dirty solar panels are? Because I bet most of Americans would say, yeah, I sure am. In fact, I'll tell you what, I know that's true. I know most Americans will frankly be shocked by this. To prove it, I want you to do something for me. I want you to go to your internet search browser. Type in solar panels and go to the news section. I want you to read through as many headlines as you care to. Do you notice a pattern? What you're reading is an endless stream of articles and videos that solar panels are green and clean, renewable. Well, guess what? That's a lie. Those words, green and clean and renewable, those are branding words, expressions of personal values and opinions. But it's not truth because solar panels are dirty in some ways similar to

or different from oil, natural gas, and coal. And by the way, today's podcast is just the start of how dirty these things are. We will no doubt discover other surprising things about this technology. So, for instance, Mr. Biden has announced plans to dramatically expand solar panel installations on federal lands out west to include undeveloped wilderness or nature. So what's the environmental impact on, say, animals and plants? And by the way, whatever happened to constantly, conservation. Or what about this? And my goodness, this is a big one. Solar power is inherently intermittent,

which is just a fancy way of saying that sometimes the sun doesn't shine, like at night. And that has very regal effects for being able to consistently power our homes and hospitals and factories. And yes, charge all of those electric vehicles that are slated to come online. We're seeing this play out in Germany, in fact, where they have been installing solar panels since the 1990s, as a part of a big government push there for solar. But now, right now, the Germans are firing back up their coal and natural gas plants, in part because the sun didn't shine as expected during the past six months. The wind, too, by the way.

More on that later. The bottom line, my friends, is this. Solar panels may be a lot of things, but they are not green. They are not clean. They are not renewable. The facts tell us that they are dirty. and they deserve to get the same degree of scrutiny that other forms of energy get. And that's why on this podcast I focused so intently on doing this scrutiny

because it appears that very few others in the media have the spine to do it. So tune in tomorrow, my friends, we are going to pivot from solar panels to wind turbines and put those things through the same degree of scrutiny as solar panels. By the way, here's a teaser for you. Did you know that the U.S. federal government will not tell us how much many eagles are killed each year by wind blades. They say it's sensitive law enforcement information. That's bizarre. We really need to know that information. More to come. And that ladies and gentlemen concludes your morning brief. As always, we close out the show, reminding each other of why we are here,

talking about our country and our world. It's the creed of every good spy and every smart American. It's from John chapter 8, verse 32. And you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you free. Good day.