Transforming panels and systems considered old and to be thrown away into resources to be reused at advantageous prices to produce energy from renewable sources. With this spirit is born KeepTheSunthe first marketplace Italian market for used photovoltaic panels. A project signed Coesa, una energy service company Turin which, after an initial test phase, has put online since mid-March the advertisement and exchange portal dedicated exclusively to sheets that capture the sun’s rays. The potential is enormous, if we consider that 90% of used panels – 78 million tonnes of panels by 2050 according to Enea estimates – are destined to end up in landfill. «A real waste, which deprives us of a colossal quantity of clean energy», underlines Federico Sandrone, CEO and co-founder of Coesa. «If instead we put these resources back into circulation, creating a secondary photovoltaic market, we not only transform waste into wealth, but we protect consumers and avoid feeding the foreign photovoltaic supply chain, which in recent years, thanks to advantageous tax incentives. has grown”.
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Advantages that are not recognized for second-hand products in Italy, unlike other countries such as Germany, where subsidies, to a lesser extent, are also given to those who buy verified second-hand materials. «This is a limitation, as well as giving advantages to Chinese and Asian companies in general – underlines Matteo Stoppa, head of Coesa’s innovation and technology sector – Europe is moving in a different way regarding the reuse and recovery of materials compared to Italy. This is why our portal is already pre-configured for other countries and we are already receiving signs of interest.”
According to the latest report from Gse, Energy Services Management, a public company that deals with renewable energy, at the end of September 2023 the systems installed in Italy exceeded one and a half million with a growth of more than 23% compared to 2022. In 2020 there were just over 920 thousand, then the important leap thanks to the incentives linked to the superbonus. Peak installed power today is more than 28,500 megawatts, while gross production exceeds 25,600 gigawatts. 46% of the total installed power is concentrated in the residential sector. This is followed by the industrial (30%), tertiary (20%) and agricultural (4%) sectors. 31% of the power is installed on the ground, while the remaining 69% is mostly on the roofs of buildings. The surface area occupied by the ground-based systems is estimated at approximately 16,300 hectares.
Il marketplace addresses two categories. To companies or those who want to carry out a revamping of the system, which can recover part of the resources from used but relatively new panels. Material that can be used by those who aim to save while still using efficient systems, creating a system off-grid, not connected to the national electricity grid. A type of installation that requires lower powers with a simplified bureaucratic process.
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«Our reference market is global – explains Stoppa – extends to non-EU countries, where there are no incentives for renewables, and to all areas that have poor access to energy sources. In African countries they often prefer to buy used panels from Europe rather than new ones from China, which reserves the production waste for Africa.” In developing countries, where the power required is decidedly lower, they can instead be the solution to quickly obtain access to clean, low-cost energy in situations where the electricity grid is not available.
Today the average age of panels in ads on the platform KeepTheSun he is 11 years old. And up to 13 thousand units are available. «The price depends on the quantity. If you buy a limited number it varies between 30 and 35 euros each, in the case of large batches in bulk it can even reach 4-5 euros each”, explains Stoppa. An intact module maintains a yield of at least 80% even 20-25 years after the first installation. After that it starts to degrade, but not suddenly. Furthermore, even if it has a lower peak power than the latest generation models, it can be used in different situations or to produce energy in particular conditions.
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Then there is an aspect that should not be underestimated: waste management. Only in Italy, by 2026, 20 thousand tons of panels will be replaced, but in 2050 the figure will be much more significant: 2.1 million tons to be disposed of or resold, according to a study by Irena, the international renewable energy agency. Sun-capturing modules that are made from scarce raw materials.
The lack of silver, for example, also depends on the photovoltaic sector, which absorbs 15% worldwide according toArizona State University. A share that is destined to rise steadily over the years. And then there is silica sand, the second material. after water, the most used on the planet, especially in the consumer electronics and photovoltaic sectors. «The volume of panels used in the world in 2030 will reach around 8 million tons – says Stoppa – while in 2050 it will reach 80 million tons». That’s like saying the weight of the Milan Cathedral multiplied by 300 times. «China exports 90% of the panels used in the world. So the bottleneck is evident”, adds Stoppa. «In 2023 alone, in Europe we imported quantities of 101.5 gigawatts from China. That means around 203 million panels. Perhaps it is better to review the policies to encourage different reuse of materials and avoid waste. Our contribution is to try to bring together supply and demand, testing different types of services in the future.”
#transition #secondhand #panels
– 2024-04-08 15:19:49
