Are all you environmentalists cool with this?
EU ministers voted on Friday to exempt solar panels from a ban on toxic substances in electrical goods, enabling leading maker First Solar to keep selling its products in the industry’s biggest market.
The revised European Union law generally bans the use of six hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment, including cadmium, which is used by U.S.-based First Solar — the world’s No. 1 solar company by market share — in its panels.
“In order to attain the EU’s ambitious targets for renewable energy and energy efficiency, photovoltaic panels to produce energy from solar light do not have to comply with the restriction,” EU ministers said in a statement after the vote.
They also voted to exempt “energy saving light bulbs”.
