The real problem with articles like this one is that by the time you've fact checked and debunked them, the fossil fuel shills will have mass-produced a dozen more, leading to a never-ending game of whack-a-mole.

The process by which ANYTHING is made can be twisted to sound laborious. Care to do the same exacting breakdown for the [metaphorical] Ford F-150 sitting in your driveway? The mining, refining, shipping, and manufacturing of the steel body, engine block, the glass and plastics and copper wiring?

Or the amount of prospecting, drilling, shipping, refining, and shipping needed to produce the gasoline needed to refuel its 36 gallon tank each and every week?

You realize, of course, that solar panel producers are aware of the current problems that lie in production and recycling, and working on systems based on perovskite panels and others, that are much, much easier to produce (and recycle).

For that matter, your description of the varied processes involved are cherry-picked to put almost everything in the worst possible light. Take aluminum. Do you not, for example, know that recycled aluminum only takes around 5% of the energy needed to make new aluminum, and that in most industrial markets like automotive and building, recycling rates for aluminum exceed 90%.

Moving on, your roof-mounted mirrors and so on are woefully inefficient. (BTW, don't drums and mirrors also need mass produced steel and glass? Or did those just appear magically as well?) You also realize you simply can’t boil water and make steam, right? A “few” places in the US get cold enough at night for water to freeze. (Was one of the big issues with solar water heating.)

And even then, at a meager 12v they fail to produce enough energy to power AC or the average household's appliances.

It's also an extremely intermittent energy source since, as mentioned, the sun goes down... and did you seriously suggest building and burning a WOOD FIRE BENEATH IT???

Hundreds of millions of homes chopping down and burning every tree within reach to produce a few volts of power???

THAT'S YOUR SOLUTION???

Are you really that....

Nevermind.