PV Module Recycling: Mining Australian Rooftops

Abstract

The disposal of photovoltaic waste will be a major concern in the future due to the rapid growth of Australia’s photovoltaic installations in the past decade. Assuming the nominal power of each solar panel is 200 W and the solar panels are retired after 20 years, more than one million used solar panels will need to be disposed from 2030 to 2034. This report studies the economic feasibility of recycling crystalline silicon based modules in Australia. The results from the proposed model indicate that economic profit up to $0.12/W, but as low as $0.036/W, can be expected from the recycling program based on current PV recycling technology and material market. However, the economic benefit from module recycling is sensitive to many factors, for example processing cost and value of polysilicon. The report also presents a prediction of Australia’s PV recycling market in the following 20 years in terms of capacity and future potential revenue. Our model predicts that approximately 3 GW of end of life solar panels will need to be disposed after 2030. Given the potential profits and volume of material to be recycled, we predict in 2032 that module recycling will be an industry valued in the order of $100M.