Executive summary – Solar PV Global Supply
Global capacity for manufacturing wafers and cells, which are key solar PV elements, and for assembling them into solar panels (also known as
Further improvement in the PV recycling capacity and technology is needed to meet future increased demand and to realize the goal of high-value, low-cost recycling. To improve economic aspects of PV module recycling, considering values of recovered materials such as critical minerals would be also necessary.
Key highlights include: Regulatory frameworks are evolving worldwide. The EU has adopted the WEEE Directive for PV waste. In other parts of the world, legislative and regulatory frameworks for PV module waste are installed or in preparation.
Regardless of whether there are PV-specific waste regulations, many companies are treating PV module waste for proper EOL management and recycling, and the number has increased since the last time IEA PVPS Task 12 surveyed three years ago. Current recycling faces economic and capacity challenges.
PV module recycling technology is expanding from delamination to metal recovery as well as exploring more valuable markets for recovered materials. Enabling the use of recovered materials in new PV cells/modules and other high-value markets are ultimate targets, whereas impurities and additives remain issues to be solved.
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