TELF AG examines the materials recoverable from end-of-life solar panels
New sources of raw materials
The rapid expansion of renewable energy in every corner of the world is also strongly pushing the recycling operations involving end-of-life solar panels, from which it is possible to recover a large quantity of strategic and absolutely precious raw materials.
Among the nations in which this trend is becoming increasingly evident is undoubtedly the United States of America, which, at a global level, represents a leading power in the renewable energy sector. According to a recent report by Wood Mackenzie and the Solar Energy Industries Association, by 2027, the capacity related to solar energy in the United States will increase by an average of 21% per year. Specific political initiatives such as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 could also favor this performance, which will ensure a 30% tax credit on residential solar panel installations. As a consequent effect, this growing increase in the installed capacity of solar infrastructure also has an increase in the number of solar panels that have reached the end of their life. According to NREL, the area ideally covered by solar panels installed from 2021 onwards in the US and destined to be retired by 2030 would be equivalent to the surface area of 3,000 American football fields.
Therefore, it is no coincidence that many US startups are starting to work first-hand to recover solar panels, mainly to recover precious raw materials, such as copper, silver, and crystalline silicon. Nowadays, most photovoltaic panels that have reached the end of their life end up in landfills, an option often considered above all for its low costs. According to a recent analysis, however, a trend focused on the reuse of strategic raw materials, such as silver and copper, is rapidly establishing itself in the United States, which could contribute in a certain way to giving a decisive push to the circular economy.
Recoverable Resources
According to estimates by SolarCycle, a startup specializing in this type of recovery, recycling each solar panel would avoid releasing 97 pounds of CO2 into the environment. If a panel were reused, the figure would rise to as much as 1.5 tons of CO2. Raw materials that could be recovered include aluminum and crystalline silicon, the latter used as a base material in solar cells. This resource must be refined before being reused in new solar panels.
According to a recent report by IRENA, the raw materials recovered from solar panels could be worth as much as $450 million globally by 2030, a figure equivalent to the cost of the resources needed to make about 60 million new solar panels. According to the same report, by 2050, this value could grow even further, even exceeding $15 billion.
Not only will the value of recovered resources increase, but also their actual quantity: by 2030, according to the report, the quantity of decommissioned solar panels will represent approximately 4% of all those installed, and by 2050, the amount of waste related to solar panels will undergo a noteworthy increase, reaching 5 million metric tons per year. Among the nations that will be most involved in these dynamics are undoubtedly those most advanced in the renewables sector, such as China, which by 2050 could have already withdrawn as many as 13.5 million metric tons of solar panels.
