Recycling and Reuse potential of NICE PV-Modules

Einhaus, Roland; Madon, F.; Degoulange, J.; Wambach, K.; Denafas, Julius; Lorenzo, Francisco Rodriguez; Abalde, Samuel Costas; Garcia, Tamara Delgado; Bollar, A.

doi:10.1109/pvsc.2018.8548307

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…The NICE technology uses a polyisobutylene (PIB) material (used and validated in the insulating glass industry) [89], which has sealing properties that guarantee very high and long-term air/humidity tightness as well as the mechanical contact between module components. The NICE configuration enables simplified, manual module disassembly and recovery of components as intact parts, which increases value for recycling and reuse (Figure 6) [90,58]. However, module efficiency declines because of the air gap and electrical connections held together by internal module vacuum pressure; changes in temperature and altitude would change the electrical efficiency [91,92,93,94,90].…”

Section: Figure 4 Proposed Structure Of the Dem Single-cell Module Design [88]mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The NICE configuration enables simplified, manual module disassembly and recovery of components as intact parts, which increases value for recycling and reuse (Figure 6) [90,58]. However, module efficiency declines because of the air gap and electrical connections held together by internal module vacuum pressure; changes in temperature and altitude would change the electrical efficiency [91,92,93,94,90].…”

Section: Figure 4 Proposed Structure Of the Dem Single-cell Module Design [88]mentioning

confidence: 99%

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PV Module Design for Recycling Guidelines

Bilbao¹,

Heath²,

Norgren³

et al. 2021

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Section: Figure 4 Proposed Structure Of the Dem Single-cell Module Design [88]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Figure 4 Proposed Structure Of the Dem Single-cell Module Design [88]mentioning

confidence: 99%

PV Module Design for Recycling Guidelines

Bilbao¹,

Heath²,

Norgren³

et al. 2021

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“…Glass comprises 79% of the material demand and 67% of life cycle wastes, as seen in the pie charts in Fig 7 . Therefore, glass forms a significant opportunity for rethinking and redesigning toward circularity. Options could include reducing glass thickness (while mitigating the reliability risk due to loss of mechanical strength), remanufacturing glass [36,[80][81][82], and recycling the cullet back into solar or flat glass quality instead of downcycling. Similarly, identifying non-extractive supply chains for PV component materials could increase supply while reducing environmental and social degradation [14,15].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Circular economy priorities for photovoltaics in the energy transition

2022

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Among the many ambitious decarbonization goals globally, the US intends grid decarbonization by 2035, requiring 1 TW of installed photovoltaics (PV), up from ~110 GW in 2021. This unprecedented global scale-up will stress existing PV supply chains with increased material and energy demands. By 2050, 1.75 TW of PV in the US cumulatively demands 97 million metric tonnes of virgin material and creates 8 million metric tonnes of life cycle waste. This analysis leverages the PV in Circular Economy tool (PV ICE) to evaluate two circular economy approaches, lifetime extension and closed-loop recycling, on their ability to reduce virgin material demands and life cycle wastes while meeting capacity goals. Modules with 50-year lifetimes can reduce virgin material demand by 3% through reduced deployment. Modules with 15-year lifetimes require an additional 1.2 TW of replacement modules to maintain capacity, increasing virgin material demand and waste unless >90% of module mass is closed-loop recycled. Currently, no PV technology is more than 90% closed-loop recycled. Glass, the majority of mass in all PV technologies and an energy intensive component with a problematic supply chain, should be targeted for a circular redesign. Our work contributes data-backed insights prioritizing circular PV strategies for a sustainable energy transition.

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“…83 Frameless modules help reduce the aluminum content, decrease transportation burdens, eliminate the need for deframing during recycling, and, thereby, simplify the recycling process and decrease the climate and energy footprint. 84 A laminate-free design 85 or replacing the EVA with edge sealants decreases the time and energy required for recycling by avoiding the need for thermal, chemical, or mechanical processes required to eliminate the EVA during PV recycling. 83 The examples mentioned above focus on the currently dominant module technology -crystalline silicon.…”

Section: Design For Circularitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…77 While commercial processes use combinations of mechanical, thermal, and optical processes, there is scope to facilitate easier delamination through design for circularity approaches such as laminate-free design. 85,255 There is a lack of robust and publicly available assessments of the economic viability of PV recycling at a commercial scale. Such assessments could help in designing better policies and incentives to transition to a CE for PV systems.…”

Section: Recyclingmentioning

confidence: 99%