It’s that these panels contain materials that are valuable, as long as we take the trouble to separate them from the aluminum frame, the glass and the wiring: silver, copper and crystalline silicon. . Components that can be sold, or reused.
SolarCycle, the young shoot born in 2022 of which speaks a recent magazine report YaleEnvironment360is not the only one in the United States: five of them come at some point where a large number of solar panels, installed in the 1990s or 2000s, need to be replaced. And in the decades to come, there will be many more. “The prospect of a future clutter of outdated panels” is accelerating efforts to develop installations that cities and large companies will need: solar energy currently represents, insists the magazine, the source of energy which knows the most strong growth in the United States.
In Europe, two Dutch firms recently announced having created a solar panel that would be fully recyclable, and half the weight of its predecessors.
A report from 2021 of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, an agency of the US Department of Energy, mentioned that the recycling of solar panels, in addition to being part of the logic of the circular economy – where waste is reduced by reusing everything that can being so—would reduce the costs of future panels, and make the production chain less dependent on a small number of producing countries, mostly located in Asia.
2023-04-24 18:18:25
#market #recycling #solar #panels
