The U.S. Department of Energy released an action plan to enable the safe and responsible handling of solar PV end-of-life (EOL) materials. The activities outlined in the plan will reduce the environmental impact of solar energy while supporting the Biden Administration’s goal to decarbonize the electricity grid by 2035.
Although 95% of a PV module is recyclable, the current economics of EOL handling are unfavorable to recycling. The cost to recycle PV modules is significantly higher than the landfill fee. Establishing safe, responsible, and economic EOL practices will support greater deployment of solar energy.
“As we accelerate deployment of photovoltaic systems, we must also recognize the pressing need to address end-of-life for the materials in a sustainable way,” said Kelly Speakes-Backman, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy. “We are committed to ensuring that the recovery, reuse, recycling, and disposal of these systems and their components are accessible, low-cost and have minimal environmental impact.”
Recycling should become standard practice to facilitate domestic material availability, according to DOE’s recent assessment of the solar PV supply chain. Actions taken now will improve the likelihood that supporting technologies will be developed to handle PV EOL volumes safely, responsibly, and economically, allowing for greater deployment and safe and socially responsible supply chains.
Under the strategy laid out today, the DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) plans to address PV EOL issues through stakeholder outreach activities, data gathering, research, and analysis. SETO aims to better understand the state of EOL through the development of a database that tracks the materials, quantity, age, location, cause of EOL, and EOL handling for modules. This is established through a five-year plan.
In addition, SETO will support hardware research to reduce the environmental impacts of EOL and reduce the cost of module recycling by more than half by 2030.
Learn more about SETO projects to develop new materials and designs that can make PV products longer-lasting, less energy-intensive to produce, easier to recycle, and less polluting at the end of life.
This is excellent news! Many of us in the solar industry don’t want to see EOL solar panels end up in landfills. Making the cost to recycle economically attractive will help add to the formula for creating a sustainable industry. Thanks to the DOE and others who are tackling this effort.
Also, keep in mind not all decommissioned panels are at end-of-life. If you have unwanted used modules that are still functioning at 75-80%, consider resale or making donations as alternatives to the landfill. We’re happy to help connect you to PV professionals who specialize in inspection, appraisals, and resale of secondhand equipment.
It looks like one of the graphics is the process First Solar has been using since (2003). It is well past time to push technology into an existing arena of recycling to see just how far one can go. Look at the natural gas industry and use in electricity generation. The old school heat exchange natural gas fired systems have been refitted with direct turbine burn and generate technologies. Then heat capture has been added to more efficiently capture what was burned heat close to 40% lost to cooling cycles. The heat is either recirculated to use in other processes or as direct heating/cooling in a chiller system for a plant or business. Getting rid of the energy middleman is one way to make one’s business more resistant to economic downturns, the other is to have a circular recycling supply chain tied into manufacturing materials and product output.