End-of-Life Management of Photovoltaic Solar Panels in the United States
Citation:
Sahle-Demessie, Endalkac. End-of-Life Management of Photovoltaic Solar Panels in the United States. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-23/186, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
There is a growing importance of renewable energy sources, solar and wind energy, to the U.S. power grid, with the rise of clean energy and electric vehicles. The U.S. is on the path of reducing its dependency on fossil fuels, lower carbon emissions, and mitigating climate change. However, this renewable energy industry could soon generate a large waste as millions of solar panels reach the end of their life cycles. EPA/ORD has conducted a comprehensive assessment of the state of solar panels (P.V.) and developed an interactive tool to predict the flow of solar panel waste. The report evaluates the current solar P.V. panel recycling market in the United States (U.S.). Generating predictable waste volumes may help federal, state, and local governments; recyclers; manufacturers; landfill owners and operators; consumers; and other stakeholders address key challenges related to sustainable EoL management of solar P.V. panels. Sustainable end-of-life management in this context specifically means the repair, reuse, and recycling of solar P.V. panels. In addition to the state legislation and management policies, the report assesses best practices and offers future research recommendations.
Description:
Solar energy is regarded as clean technology, but what happens to solar panels once they reach the end of their lifetime is vital for sustainability and achieving a circular economy. Current solar panels have an average lifespan of about 25 years. Millions of solar panels installed from the early 2000s are approaching the anticipated end-of-life. Growing solar panel waste presents a new environmental challenge and unprecedented opportunities to create value and pursue new economic avenues. Increasing interest in panel recycling reflects the relative importance of recovered materials, primarily silicon, silver and lead Thus, only about 10% of panels are recycled today. Currently recycling costs exceed recovery economics, and in the absence of a federal and state mandates to recycle, a large volume of materials could be headed to a landfill. When released into the environment, hazardous materials present in end-of-life solar panels can be sources of significant pollution and health issues. Concern for the heavy metals present is essential to demand the proper management designed to avoid poor management practices that could contribute to another recycling crisis. The solar panel industry must develop technology to enable safe disposal and recycling of end-of-life or reuse and repurposing that could reduce the amount of waste and virgin materials extraction. Clear criteria and analytical methods must be developed to evaluate the obsolescence of solar panels to ensure proper management decisions. Considerations of a landfill option must be replaced with well-managed recycling to avoid environmental pollution from hazardous materials with PV panels, aid the recovery of valuable materials present in the panels. This report support EPA/ORD effort aimed at understanding the flow of used PV panels by reviewing the regulatory programs for project end-of-life of solar PV panels flow projections in the United States at national, regional, and state levels, and the assumptions and limitations built into the projections. This report documents a preliminary assessment of available data and development of the model that can be used as a starting point to track domestic flows of used electronics from generation to collection and reuse to final disposition.