A Growing Need For Recycled Solar

Reduce, reuse: Solar PV recycling market to be worth $2.7 billion by 2030

July 6, 2022 (Rystad Energy)

The demand for recycled solar photovoltaic (PV) panel components is set to skyrocket in the coming years as the number of installations surges and the threat of a supply bottleneck looms…[R]ecyclable materials from PV panels at the end of their lifespan will be worth more than $2.7 billion in 2030, up from only $170 million this year. This trend will only accelerate in the coming decades and the value of recyclable materials is projected to approach $80 billion by 2050…PV recycling is still in its infancy but is seen as an essential element of the energy transition, with solar PV waste projected to grow to 27 million tonnes per annum by 2040…

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…[R]ecovered materials from retired panels could make up 6% of solar PV investments by 2040, compared to only 0.08% today…Landfills are an easy and cheap option as current resale prices for recycled solar PV materials do not compensate for the transportation, sorting and processing costs…[But the] material supply side is expected to encounter bottlenecks with the growing demand for minerals, and recycling can be a supply relief as panels reach the end-of-life stage…The panel components with the highest value are aluminum, silver, copper and polysilicon…

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…[By 2035,] the PV recycling industry can supply 8% of the polysilicon, 11% of the aluminum, 2% of the copper, and 21% of the silver needed by recycling PV panels installed in 2020…This recovery potential can ease strains on the mining sector and reduce the solar PV panels’ carbon footprint…Technology, policy and economic viability are both barriers and solutions to evolving circularity of minerals in the PV panel industry. Regulatory mechanisms can be an efficient tool to create rapid change, as we have already seen in the European market and through some initial attempts in the US at the state level…” click here for more

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