What occurs to a photo voltaic PV module after its anticipated 25-year operational life? With practically 2 TW of rooftop and utility-scale PV already deployed worldwide, and lots of of which have been retired earlier than working for 15 years, the variety of PV modules being thrown away is rising yearly. As PV modules turn into cheaper each day, and with the regular enchancment of PV module efficiencies, many utility-scale PV energy crops are beginning to function once more even earlier than they attain their anticipated 25-year lifespan. operation. Many of those modules nonetheless carry out nicely. Can they be deployed in a second life to offer photo voltaic electrical energy for a couple of extra years?
The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts in 2020 that the worldwide cumulative put in capability of photovoltaics will exceed 1 TWp in 2025 (PVPS TASK, 2020). However, earlier than the tip of 2024, this quantity will double to greater than 2 TW. Recent vitality manufacturing forecasts present that a big improve is required, with a goal of 75 TW of world PV capability by 2050 to restrict world temperature rise to 1.5 C and mitigate the consequences of local weather change.
It is widely known that photo voltaic photovoltaics (together with large-scale offshore wind) is essentially the most sustainable and most cost-effective vitality conversion expertise. Global photo voltaic deployment would wish to develop about 40 occasions higher than right this moment to totally decarbonize the world. This shall be achieved within the yr 2042 if the present development price of 20% per yr continues.
The development of PV technology on a worldwide scale will inevitably lead to massive quantities of waste from PV modules sooner or later. On the opposite hand, photo voltaic PV avoids the emission of carbon dioxide. Each kilogram of the photo voltaic panel generates about 0.9 MWh in its lifetime, which permits avoiding about 900 kilograms of carbon dioxide from burning coal – a ratio of 900:1. This calculation assumes a future PV module mass of 25 W/kg (excluding the body), a capability issue of 16%, and a module lifetime of 25 years.
If we contemplate that 10 billion individuals want 100 TW of photo voltaic PV (10 kW every) for world decarbonization, then 400 W / particular person of photo voltaic modules will retire yearly. This quantities to 16 kilos of photo voltaic module waste per particular person per yr, most of which is glass with a small quantity of plastic, silicon and metallic. The present circulation of glass waste within the USA is about 11 million tons or 32 kg per particular person. Thus, photo voltaic PV will increase 50% of the prevailing waste stream whereas avoiding the emission of 900 occasions higher mass of carbon dioxide. The future photo voltaic module waste of 16 kg per particular person per yr is simply 2% of the 800 kg per particular person per yr of annual stable waste within the USA.
In abstract, photo voltaic module waste is a minor subject. But, is there an alternative choice to sending photo voltaic panels to landfill? After retirement, do PV modules nonetheless have helpful energy technology capabilities? There are research underway that recommend a round life cycle for photo voltaic modules. The effectivity lack of a photovoltaic module can vary from 0.4% to five% per yr, relying on the local weather and supplies used.
Manufacturing expertise, geared toward rising the ability of the PV module, is growing quickly. The panels are rising in measurement and the cell effectivity can be rising. Between 1980 and 2020, a 76% discount within the power-to-weight ratio of PV modules has been achieved. This signifies that new panels could be mounted on present help buildings or trackers to supply extra energy.
Currently, the main expertise within the world market is single crystalline silicon with an estimated module energy of 550 W to 750 W, in comparison with 350 W in 2019, lower than 200 W in 2010 , and fewer than 100 W earlier than 2000. A considerable amount of PV modules are thrown away, and there’s a lack of readability in regards to the technical, financial, and social potentialities of reusing them in a second life as an alternative of direct it straight to recycling. In addition, there’s a lack of insurance policies, requirements, and procedures that information whether or not tools could be reused (second life) or ought to be recycled. Legislation, such because the WEEE Directive in Europe, presents a problem for the reuse market.
Circular financial system: reuse and recycling
PV CYCLE is a non-for-profit, member-based group established in 2007 by the PV business to handle a variety {of electrical} and digital tools together with PV modules, batteries, packaging and industrial waste . It gives waste administration and authorized compliance companies to firms and waste holders and has representatives worldwide. One such member in Brazil grew 160 occasions within the final 4 years, processing 13 tons (430 PV modules = 0.2 MW) in 2020 when the corporate began amassing discarded PV modules, as much as 2800 tons (greater than 91 thousand PV modules = 45 MW) till now in 2024. This development is estimated to succeed in 4500 tons = 75 MW by the tip of 2024; practically 80% of those modules come from utility-scale PV energy crops. Around 10% of discarded PV modules come from distributors (new, broken throughout transport and dealing with), and the remaining 10% from small system integrators. SunR is now increasing all through Latin America, additionally concentrating on massive PV energy crops that had been commissioned lower than 10 years in the past.
In 1999, the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) changed a diesel generator on a small satellite tv for pc island (Ratones Grande island) on the primary island of Florianopolis, Brazil, with a 5 kW off-grid PV system proven within the photographs beneath. The 10% environment friendly polycrystalline silicon PV modules proceed till 2022, when it’s determined to exchange them with new modules which can be greater than twice as environment friendly to double the put in capability in the identical space which is constrained by house. After greater than 20 years of working on this offshore setting, a lot of the 76 PV modules nonetheless have an output of about 80% of the unique nameplate score and, as an alternative of being discarded/recycled, they’re reinstalled at UFSC photo voltaic vitality analysis laboratory. and monitored by a second life, PV module reuse undertaking. Social housing packages in Brazil and elsewhere can profit from very low-cost, second-life PV modules, so long as their efficiency and security could be assured after the producer’s warranties are now not legitimate. Although not but a typical follow, there are numerous analysis teams and corporations in Europe, the USA and Australia, the place reuse and second life actions are carried out.
The round financial system of PV modules can embody reuse and second life, earlier than the ultimate recycling to get better supplies for the manufacture of recent PV modules. However, with state-of-the-art PV modules with 25-30-year warranties below $0.10/W, as we’ve right this moment, the economics of second-life PV modules is a troublesome guess.
Photo: Ricardo Ruther/ISES
Photo: Ricardo Ruther/ISES
Photo: Ricardo Ruther/ISES
Authors: Prof. Ricardo Rüther (UFSC), Prof. Andrew Blakers / ANU
ISES, the International Solar Energy Society is a UN-accredited membership NGO based in 1954 working in direction of a world with 100% renewable vitality for all, used effectively and correctly.
The views and opinions expressed on this article are these of the writer, and don’t essentially replicate these held by pv journal.
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