Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Recycling solar panels - is it doable in circular economy?

 Inside Climate News offers this:

Making Solar Energy as Clean as Can Be Means Fitting Square Panels Into the Circular Economy

Adam Saghei, CEO of We Recycle Solar, stands in front of pallets of resell-ready solar panels on August, 8, 2023 at the company’s facility in Yuma, Ariz. Credit: Emma Peterson.

"To keep panels out of landfills, the company prioritizes reusing PV panels that still have life in them. They put about 60 percent of the whole panels that come through their doors back on the market, often for about half their original price. Of the remaining 69 million pounds of material they receive in a year, 99 percent can be taken apart and recycled back into the supply chain, Saghei said.


"But glass is just one problem, and one that is easier to solve than some others, like the cost disparity between recycling solar panels and sending them to the dump. 

It currently costs about $5 to put a panel into a landfill, compared to $20 to recycle it, said Taylor Curtis, regulatory and policy analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. 

It doesn’t help that there are no government incentives to promote recycling the panels."

 




3 comments:

  1. It is great to known the solar panels can be recycled. Worth the cost. Take care, have a great day!

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  2. The solar panels we purchased and installed on our neighbor's dance studio roof were recycled. Plenty of life in them.

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  3. Information that I wouldn't have known.

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There is today, more than ever, the need for a compassionate regenerative world civilization.