Environmental and economic evaluation of solar panel wastes recycling

Abstract

Owing to rising population and increasing energy demand, renewable energy resources become the most convenient and promising solution. Hence, solar power plant investments and photovoltaic module numbers have risen sharply. Turkey is one of the tight followers of the energy trends, thanks to its rising energy demand and economic power. However, the consequences of the massive plant wastes importance in term of economically and environmentally have not been understood yet. Almost 70% of the modules are formed by glass and the rest accumulates economically valuable metal materials, which are silver, aluminium and copper. These three main materials are substantially important in the overall waste. Not only the economic value, but also the environmental impacts of the mining effluents to excavate these metals are causing emission problems. As a chain reaction, the higher energy demand triggers a search for new and renewable energy resources. This is why popularity of solar energy has increased. Solar energy can be absorbed and transformed through photovoltaic modules, which contain glass and three main metals. In order to respond for the production of modules, metals are fundamental. This need triggers the need of metals mining excavations and emissions. In this respect, in the near future, thanks to the rising investments on photovoltaic modules and the CO2 emissions coming from mining, the wastes of photovoltaic modules and the need of recycling will become more important. That is why, in this study it is aimed to present environmental benefits and economic recoveries of recycling photovoltaic module in Turkey.

Sustainable Attainment of Solar E-waste Recycling Concerning to COVID-19 Crisis: A Review

“…Being a resource supplier nation, lowering prices could be a tremendous merit in lowering manufacturing expenses to compete with other resource suppliers on the market and thus dominating the market as a strong resource supplier. In short, they all give rise to the country's cash inflow, and thus motivate the creation and become a strong candidate" [25]. All this plays an important part for the economy of the country.…”

“…Under these conditions, copper, aluminium and silver prices are expected to be on average as USD 7,500 t −1 , USD 2350 t −1 , and USD 495, 18 kg −1 between 2040 and 2050. In this regard, the economic revenue from PV waste is shown in Table 9.4, showing waste PV module metals (silver, aluminium and copper), weights, unit prices and estimated economic values for a single module" [25].…”

Within the global circular economy: A special case of Turkey towards energy transition

“…Turkey's total module number was reported as 3.3 million in 2018 by Gönen and Kaplanoğlu. 19 The 60–70% of these modules are assumed to be recycled, whereas 30–40% of the remaining modules are assumed nonrecycled or already they deinstalled before their end of life due to the lack of regulation related to the PV recycle. In this context, once the recycle ratio of PV modules in Turkey was selected as 65%, the recycled metals' economic value would be approximately 30 million $ (USD).…”

“…In this context, once the recycle ratio of PV modules in Turkey was selected as 65%, the recycled metals' economic value would be approximately 30 million $ (USD). 19 …”

“… 18 The environmental benefits and economic recoveries of recycling PV module in Turkey were studied including technical aspects of engineering. 19 The lack of the literature concerning to CE policy and implementation including renewables, particularly solar energy of Turkey that is a member of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and a candidate of the EU, encourages us to work on this topic. The project of Sunrise was selected by the European Commission at the beginning of 2019 20 and supported by Horizon 2020.…”