Efforts among leading manufacturers to produce solar cells using base metals instead of silver in a bid to reduce costs could pose a threat to the future economic viability of recycling end-of-life panels.
While transitioning from silver to base metals like copper in solar panels presents manufacturers with significant advantages in cost and availability, new research suggests it could potentially decrease the future economic viability of recycling end-of-life PV modules.
Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Poland’s Gdansk University of Technology and the Polish Academy of Sciences, have analyzed the material composition of diverse solar panels in the Australian market as part of efforts to better understand the profitability of recycling processes for the growing PV waste stream in Australia and similar markets.
“There is still a lack of comprehensive, experimentally derived data on the material composition of diverse photovoltaic panels in the Australian market,” the researchers said. “This paper addresses this gap by providing a detailed characterisation analysis of 12 different PV panels from various manufacturers.”
The study shows that despite variability in material composition across the different panels, the key components – including aluminium, glass, ethylene and vinyl acetate (EVA) laminate, and solar cells – are all recyclable and meet raw material production requirements.
