Solar Recycling Picking Up Pace

The strong growth of the solar energy sector in the recent year – especially in the last decade – and the constant call for ‘circular economies’ citing environmental concerns will be harbingers for the solar recycling industry.

The value of recovered raw materials from discarded solar panels has the potential to increase up to $450 million by as early as 2030, an IRENA report states. In terms of usefulness, this may be equivalent to the quantities of raw materials it takes to produce around 60 million new solar panels today. By 2050, these values may drastically rise and hit around $15 billion – equivalent to about 2 billion panels.

The benefits of recycling could be seen from the environmental perspective as well. At least 90 per cent of materials can be reused. Diverting solar panels from landfills to recycling saves space in landfills. Toxic metals like lead and cadmium may also be present in solar panels, discarding which mindlessly could be harmful. Moreover, considering the exponential growth of solar power, recycling should be scaled up quickly.

What can be Recycled?

Solar panels are built from several raw materials ranging from aluminium to plastic. Most solar panels today use crystalline-silicon solar technology. This needs an aluminium frame, glass, copper wire, polymer layers, a back sheet, silicon solar cells, and a plastic junction box.

Most of these components (if not all) can be recycled. Glass gives the majority of the weight -around 75 per cent – to a solar panel. While glass recycling is already a well-established industry, other materials which can be easily brought under commercial use again include the aluminium frame, copper wire, and plastic junction boxes.

There are some other materials recycling which could be a challenge, such as silver and internal copper which are valuable components located within the solar cells. However, they are present in very small quantities. Furthermore, solar panels also use critical materials including aluminium, tin, tellurium, and antimony, as well as gallium and indium in some thin-film modules. Other recyclable components include inverters, racking, and battery backup systems.

Such a wide array of recyclable components make it imperative to put in place desirable policy measures to manage and tap the potential of the solar waste industry. This way, a circular solar industry can be achieved while taking care of the waste that may be generated.

Lifespan of Solar Panels

So, now the question is how much time before solar panels get discarded. Manufacturers usually offer solar panels along with 20-30 years of warranty. Because of their longevity, solar panel recycling is a relatively new concept. But it is difficult to ascertain how much time they would actually survive considering that solar panels have come into vogue since the second half of the 2000s only. A very small proportion of the solar PV panels installed globally have reached half or more of their warranted lifetime.

Nevertheless, solar panels and components recycling will become crucial as and when the present batches will retire. As of now, it must be focussed on how to scale up recycling.

The Development of Solar Recycling

Solar Recycling Industry will soon become one of the crucial industries. While some regions have already realised and started recycling solar, some have remained laggards.

Europe

Europe is ahead of its peers in its EV recycling industry. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) of the European Union helped found a member-based organization called PV Cycle to build out a robust recycling infrastructure. Several private firms have started the recycling industry in Europe. For instance, ROSI Solar is constructing a new factory capable of recycling 3,000 tonnes of solar panels per year. ROSI also received the EU’s first “Industry of the Future Award” for technological research supported by the EU’s Horizon programme.

New startups like FLAXRES are also sprouting up. The company has begun industrial-scale operations at a pilot plant in Dresden capable of recycling 10 tonnes of solar modules per day.

The US

Solar panel recycling companies in the US are developing the technology and infrastructure to process solar components. For instance, a recycling company SOLARCYCLE is cooperating with solar providers like Sunrun aiming to recover up to approximately 95 per cent of a solar panel’s value.

Owing to the modest government support, recycled materials can meet 30-50 per cent of domestic solar manufacturing needs in the US by 2040, as per one government finding.

India

India is expected to be one of the top five photovoltaic-waste creators, with a target to add 25 GW of solar capacity each year to 2030. Despite that, the country currently considers solar waste a part of electronic waste and not a separate entity. Moreover, there is no commercial raw material recovery facility for solar e-waste operational in India. However, a pilot facility for solar panel recycling and material recovery had been set up by a private company in Gummidipoondi, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Earlier this year, a group of Indian scientists developed a formula using which they were able to extract 99.98 per cent of pure silicon by utilising a three-step sequential process in addition to recovering silver.

China

China faces a tide of waste from decommissioned wind turbines to retired solar panels as old renewable energy facilities reach the end of their life. the country is also on course to add close to 50 GW or more of solar capacity each year for the next decade. In its policy earlier this year, the Chinese government laid out plans to promote the development of technologies for the reuse of retired solar and wind facilities and to improve recycling systems for EV batteries. China may see 1.05 million tonnes of retired solar panel components by 2035. This is a huge cause of worry for a nation whose first pilot project for recycling polycrystalline silicon – a key material in solar cells – was put into operation in January this year.