The solar revolution offered us the infinite potential of collecting energy from the sky, however, it did not offer a solution for the millions of panels when they become obsolete.
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Check PriceThere are more than 3 million homes in America that use solar panels to turn sunlight into electricity. Each solar panel has been designed to last around 25 years. This means that the first wave of solar panels that were massed installed are now reaching retirement age. We are completely unprepared for what comes next.
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Every Solar Owner Should Be Concerned About This Math
According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, we will have 78 million tons of solar panel waste by 2050. This is the same weight as 260 Empire State Buildings. That waste will go to landfills if we do not take action.
Wasteful, is the current recycling practice for solar panels in the U.S. Recycling about 90% of solar panels in the U.S. is practiced by landfill-ing them. Landfdilling a solar panel is about a dollar or two, whereas recycling them costs 20-30 dollars per panel. It is easy to see the perverse incentive at work.
Why Is Recycling Solar Panels Difficult?
Solar panels have some valuable components within them: silver, aluminum, copper, and highly purified silicon. However, these materials are laminated with plastic polymers and sealed with ethylene-vinyl acetate, creating a ‘sandwich’ that’s very difficult to separate.
Conventional recycling techniques will shred the panels, recover the aluminum frames, and retrieval junction boxes. This results in an 80% loss of valuable internal materials. It's the same as recycling a smartphone and only retrieving the case.
The European Solution That Is Working
Europe was the the first to deal with this problem and come up with a solution that actually works. According to the WEEE regulations, solar panel manufacturers have to manage the entire product lifecycle of their panels. As a result, firms such as Veolia and PV Cycle have been able to reclaim 95% of the materials from old panels.
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Their secret weapon is thermal processing – the heating of panels to 500°C to separate the layers, then using chemical processes to treat and purify the silicon recovered. This process can recover enough materials from every 3 recycled panels to manufacture 2.3 new ones.
Innovations in the United States beginning to be distributed
A handful of American businesses are leading the way in innovation. In Ohio, First Solar has the largest facility in the world for recycling solar panels. The facility is able to recycle 1,800 solar panels every hour! First Solar has a closed-loop recycling system that has recycled more than 46 million pounds of solar panels to date and recovers 90% of the materials used in the solar panels.
Companies such as SOLARCYCLE are creating mobile recycling units that process panels at the location where the panels are being recycled. This method reduces transportation costs, which makes it economically feasible to recycle small panel installations.
The Policy Discrepancy Restricting Our Progress
The U.S., unlike Europe, has no federal mandates for solar panel recycling, however, Washington State is the only state to pass a complete solar waste law that will start requiring manufacturers to pay for recycling to be done in 2023.
Because of the lack of policy, there is a classic tragedy of the commons situation. Companies do not have motivation to build costly recycling infrastructure while their competitors can just throw panels into landfills.
What Actions Homeowners Can Take Immediately
Do not wait for solutions! When picking solar installers, inquire about their end-of-life plans. Companies like SunPower and Tesla are working on programs to take back their panels.
For future recycling programs, keep your documents that outline your panel specifications and installation dates. These documents may assist in retrieving important materials.
Contact your representatives and request that manufacturers be held responsible for the entire lifecycle costs of their products. Support extended producer responsibility legislation in your state.
The Positive Side of Solar Waste
An unexpected chance in this challenge is that recycled solar panels may be a significant source of high-purity silicon for new panels. Silicon as a raw material is used for the manufacturing of solar panels, but its current production is energy demanding and costly. With cooled energy use, Recycled silicon could lead to the manufacturing cost to drop by 40%.
Analysts think a circular economy for renewable energy will be achieved by 2040. Recycled materials will provide 30% of the raw materials needed for new solar panels.
The solar recycling crisis can be avoided with appropriate policies and technologies and consumer education. We can prevent today's renewable energy solution from becoming a future environmental threat. The most important thing is to build the infrastructure we will need in the future, and we need to do it fast.
