Longer PV module lifetimes might decrease new materials demand by decreasing the necessity for added photo voltaic deployment within the US, in accordance with new analysis from the Nationwide Renewable Vitality Laboratory (NREL).
Alongside reducing demand for uncooked supplies, long-life modules additionally present an extended grace interval during which to develop and implement end-of-life recycling or remanufacturing processes, the examine revealed.
“When contemplating a sustainable PV provide chain, there’s a tendency to leap straight to recycling as the answer, when there are numerous different round financial system levers to strive first, like lifetime extension,” mentioned Heather Mirletz, the article’s lead creator.
Among the many 336 eventualities the authors thought-about, two eventualities symbolize the higher and decrease bounds of potential approaches to a round financial system of PV modules – modules with an prolonged 50-year lifetime and shorter-lived, 15-year modules with a excessive fee of closed-loop recycling. These had been in comparison with a baseline situation that assumed a 35-year module lifetime and a low recycling fee that’s reflective of present know-how and processes.
The analysis discovered that as a result of the short-lived modules require a further 1.2TW of substitute modules to keep up PV technology capability till 2050, they need to attain closed-loop recycling charges of 95% or greater to keep away from requiring bigger portions of recent supplies than the 35-year baseline situation.
Titled ‘Round Financial system Priorities for Photovoltaics within the Vitality Transition’ and printed within the PLOS ONE journal, the examine thought-about solely the circulate of supplies for crystalline silicon modules, however it may be utilized to different PV applied sciences.
“We will keep away from extra replacements and extra manufacturing by constructing programs proper the primary time. Recycling short-lived modules sounds enticing, however our mass stability and capability calculations present it would restrict PV capability,” mentioned Teresa Barnes, an creator of the article and supervisor of NREL’s PV reliability and system efficiency group.
A nationwide laboratory of the US Division of Vitality, NREL analysis printed in 2020 instructed that extra must be accomplished to cut back the recycling prices and environmental impression of used photo voltaic panels.
PV Tech explored the established order in PV’s round financial system, together with how the trade is ramping up efforts to spice up recycling, in a function written by Emilie Oxel O’Leary, CEO of Inexperienced Clear Photo voltaic, a US firm specialising in waste administration and landfill diversion for photo voltaic websites.
