The Dark Side of LED Lights; China Breaks Renewables Record While US Flails
And more about the real costs of renewable energy and digital tech, and how we can do better.
The Dark Side of LED Lights
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Thanks to astute reader Will Chilton, I recently learned that there’s a a whole industry I’ve overlooked but should be paying attention to: LED lights. Turns out that while they do burn less energy than old school incandescent or fluorescent lights, they also gobble up boatloads of critical metals.
With their greater energy efficiency, longer lifespans, and falling prices, LEDs—aka“light emitting diodes”— are rapidly taking over the the job of illuminating our streets, factories, offices and homes. Their share of the residential market has mushroomed from 5% in 2013 to more than 50% today, and is expected to keep growing.
The intangible light they emit is produced by solid metals. “Bulbs, tubes and strip lights that use LEDs bring together a dozen metals sourced and shipped from around the world, typically to countries in Asia for manufacturing,” writes journalist (and fellow Substacker) Ian Morse. “All told, LED lights that fit in the palm of your hand are delicate creations of more than a dozen elements.”
Copper wires carry electricity into an LED bulb, activiating a light-emitting diode typically made with aluminum, gallium and indium. Thin layers of more metals change the diode’s blueish light to more pleasing colors: “Yttrium, aluminum, garnet and some cerium filters out blue light, leaving colors closer to white. Combinations of barium, strontium, cadmium and europium can produce red colors, and cerium and lutetium can produce more yellow-green shades,” explains Morse.
The bulbs also hold printed circuit boards that can contain gold, cobalt, barium, gallium, antimony, and manganese. They often also include such toxins as lead, cadmium, and arsenic.
When they reach the end of their useful lives—or when their owners just get tired of those strings of Christmas lights or overbright desk lamps—LEDs almost always end up getting trashed. Which means those toxins could seep into soil or groundwater. It also means enormous amounts of valuable metals are simply wasted. Both of which problems are set to get much worse in the coming years. Remember, LEDs have only been deployed in large numbers in the last ten years or so. “On average, the expected life span of a LED light bulb is 5–7 years, which means that LED lights will appear in the waste stream in massive scale in the coming decades,” notes a group of French researchers. Already, more than 10 million LEDs are thrown out in the UK alone each year.
Virtually none of that mountain of light-up detritus gets recycled. LEDs come in so many shapes, sizes and configurations, and each bulb contains such tiny amounts of metal, that it’s extremely difficult to extract the reusable stuff economically.
None of this is an argument to stick with your old incandescent bulbs (though I’ll admit I prefer their softer glow). Incandescents and fluorescents also use rare earths and other metals—in some cases, even more than LEDs. And since LEDs require much less electricity, their growing use has the potential to reduce lighting’s share of global power consumption and the carbon emissions that come with it. It is, however, an argument for thinking twice before buying a cheap LED flashlight or lamp that you may not need. And more importantly, it’s an argument for promoting systems to reuse, rather than recycle, LEDs. According to one study, as many as half of all the LEDs that get tossed still work. The diodes at their hearts can last for decades. Surely we can come up with some bright ideas for better places to put them than the dump.
China Breaks Renewables Record While US Flails
“Clean-energy technologies made up more than 10% of China’s economy in 2024 for the first time ever, with sales and investments worth 13.6tn yuan ($1.9 trillion),” reports Carbon Brief, a think-tank. Yep, nearly two trillion dollars. Most of that comes from the ongoing massive growth in electric vehicles, batteries, and solar power.
Meanwhile in the US, investment in renewables and EVs has also been surging, hitting an estimated $272 billion last year. But that progress is being derailed by President Trump’s moves to gut federal support for those industries, plus his threatened tariffs on the imported metals they require. Across the country, reports the New York Times, proposed wind farms, battery factories and other projects are being put on hold or scrapped altogether. And America’s top-selling electric car brand may also take a hit: many Americans (not to mention Europeans) are so appalled by Elon Musk that they no longer want to buy Teslas.
Book News
I hauled myself out of bed before dawn this morning to appear on the CBC Radio’s The Current. To East Coast listeners who heard me live—you’re welcome/I’m sorry. The clip should be up for all to hear at some point today.
Further on the Canadian Content front…I’ll be talking about Power Metal, the book, with Laura Lynch, host of CBC Radio’s What on Earth, on Wednesday, March 5 at the Vancouver Public Library's main branch downtown. If you’re in the area, c’mon by! The event is free—but seating is limited, so please register if you're aiming to come.
Ten days later and many miles to the south, I’ll be appearing at the Tucson Festival of Books on Sunday, March 15. I’ll be doing two panels with some stellar fellow writers, including Ernest Scheyder, Edward Humes and Rosanna Xia. It’s a great festival, and is also free, so if you’re anywhere near Arizona that weekend, come check it out.
More News Worth Knowing
🏡 Federally-Funded Climate Projects In Your Neighborhood (and everywhere else): an excellent database/map from the folks at Grist.org.
🐦⬛ Well-Managed Solar Farms Can Boost Wildlife, Says Study. And if you don’t have enough land for a solar farm, build a floating one!
🤳 Caught on Video: Thieves Steal Copper Cables from Solar Plant in Japan
⚫️ Nationwide Blackout in Chile Shuts Down World’s Biggest Copper Mines