Recovery of Materials from Waste Silicon Solar Photovoltaic Modules

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is essential in the clean energy transition. There is a phenomenal rise in deployments of PV modules from just 5 GW in year 2005 to a cumulative capacity of over 1000 GW globally at the end of the year 2022. India is also committed to generating clean energy mainly through solar PV and over 67 GW PV modules already installed by April 2023, which further increase to 280 GW by the year 2030 as the target set by the government. However, with rapid deployments arises, the issue of waste management of the PV modules needs to be addressed suitably as their end-of-life is usually 20-25 years. Thus, it is important to develop a safe disposal process in an efficient & environmentally friendly manner to recover materials from PV waste. Extraction of various materials such as glass, silicon, Al, Ag, Cu, etc. from waste silicon solar modules involving mechanical, chemical & thermal processes have been carried out at CSIR-NPL. An overall recovery rate of about 85% is achieved with the developed process. The recovered materials were characterized using various techniques and analysed to assess their quality. It was found that these materials can be re-used after adequate purification in solar PV, metal alloy, etc.-based industries.

The recovered materials may find applications in PV, metal-alloy, etc.-based industries.

Safe handling and upcycling of materials extracted from waste silicon PV panels, creating a sustainable PV industry by reducing waste, environmental damage, and costs while promoting clean energy adoption.