Italian media are reporting arrests have been made after a probe launched into how a huge number of solar panels earmarked for recycling were subsequently re-labelled and sold to some unspecified African countries.
The huge upsurge in lithium-ion battery deployment expected over the next two decades poses a problem: what to do with cells that have reached the end of their useful life. Stefan Hogg investigates the importance of lithium recyling in the transition to a low carbon energy system.
In 2015, estimated annual global volumes of electronic waste (e-waste) reached a record 43.8 million metric tons and global e-waste generation is expected to increase up to 50 million metric tons by 2018. Even though solar PV panels significantly differ from typical consumer electronic products, global regulators view PV panels increasingly in the context of e-waste regulations. Solar PV currently accounts for less than 1% of total annual e-waste volumes.
The end-of-life handling of PV equipment is becoming an important element in the total life cycle costs of PV generation assets. First Solar looks at the growing importance of PV recycling.
French waste giant Veolia has opened the first PV recycling facility in France through a partnership with PV Cycle, a not-for-profit take-back and waste management programme for solar in Europe.
The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has launched a first-of-its-kind national PV recycling program — designed to ensure the sustainability of the US solar market.
Recognising that the vast growth in solar deployment under the feed-in tariff (FiT) could lead to an accumulation of PV waste in landfills, Japan will soon begin implementing recycling rules for solar modules.
A Paris-based centre for recycling solar modules has abandoned its operations in PV waste management, citing increasingly difficult regulatory and market conditions.
Specialty metal and chemical products producer 5N Plus has opened a new recycling facility within the Kulim High Technology Park in Malaysia, completed under budget.
Senersun announced that it had officially become a member of The European Centre for the Recycling of Solar Energy (CERES), joining several other EU-based solar companies. CERES is a non-profit association, which aims to create a voluntary commitment take-back program for the PV community.
