Day February 11, 2026

You've probably seen the headlines. "Solar panels will create a waste crisis." "Millions of toxic panels heading to landfill." "The dark side of green energy." Here's what those headlines don't tell you: the UK's solar waste "crisis" is almost entirely a future problem, not a current one. Most UK solar installations happened after 2010. With 25-30 year lifespans, mass decommissioning won't hit until the mid-2030s to 2040s. 

Electric vehicles are approximately 20-30% heavier than their petrol or diesel equivalents. A Tesla Model 3 weighs 1,847 kg / 4,072 lbs compared to a similar-sized BMW 3 Series at 1,540 kg / 3,395 lbs. A Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup weighs 2,726 kg / 6,015 lbs while its petrol version weighs 1,950 kg / 4,300 lbs. This weight difference has created questions about whether electric vehicles are too heavy for multi-storey car parks, whether roads can handle the additional mass, and what this means for infrastructure planning in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and other English-speaking countries.