Groundbreaking Solar Panel Recycling Achieves Remarkable 99% Efficiency

Renewable energy equipment like wind turbines and solar panels have a useful life cycle and require recycling solutions to ensure sustainability once they reach the end of their lifespan. Efficient recycling of solar panels, similar to other electronic devices, involves separating materials like aluminum frames, photovoltaic cells, glass coatings, and circuit metals. A team of researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia has made significant advancements in solar panel recycling.

Key aspects of current solar panel recycling

Before discussing the new technique developed by Australian researchers, it’s important to understand the main aspects of solar panel recycling:

1. Composition of solar panels: Solar panels consist primarily of glass, aluminum, silicon, and small amounts of metals like silver and copper.
2. Recycling process:
   1. Disassembly: Panels are dismantled to separate the glass, aluminum frame, and other components.
   2. Thermal treatment: Thermal treatment is used to evaporate adhesives and separate the silicon.
   3. Grinding and separation: The remaining materials are ground and separated using chemical and physical processes.
3. Reuse of main materials:
   1. Aluminum and glass: These materials are recycled and used in the production of new solar panels or other industrial products.
   2. Silicon: Recovered silicon from photovoltaic cells can be reused in manufacturing new solar panels or computing devices after purification.
   3. Metals: Metals from aluminum frames to copper, tin, and zinc in electrical materials can be recycled for various applications.

Achieving 99% recycling efficiency

The UNSW team of scientists achieved a 99% recovery rate of materials with their new solar panel recycling process. In addition to conventional techniques, their method uses stainless steel balls as abrasive agents to effectively separate valuable components from photovoltaic cells, including silicon and precious metals like silver. These metals account for a small percentage of the total weight but constitute a significant material value in each panel.

The process involves crushing solar cells into smaller particles to facilitate the separation and recovery of valuable materials without cross-contamination. This advancement improves current solar panel recycling techniques by disintegrating materials in a reduced timeframe, ranging from five to fifteen minutes.

This technique offers a promising solution as solar panel waste is expected to increase. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimates that solar panel waste could reach eight million tons by 2030 and seventy-eight million tons by 2050 due to the growth of photovoltaic energy worldwide.

Professor Chao Zhang, one of the project leaders, highlights that this method is not only efficient but also economically viable, making it potentially scalable. Recovering valuable materials from solar panels could revolutionize waste management in the photovoltaic industry, promote a circular economy, and reduce reliance on new natural resources.

Solar panel recycling is just one aspect of renewable energy. To learn more about the fate of other equipment, such as wind turbines, consider reading about a wind turbine transformed into sneaker soles here.

Source: