Recycling Strategies for Decommissioned Photovoltaic Module Panels

Abstract

The growing popularity of the use of photovoltaic (PV) panels to obtain solar energy entails, in addition to indisputable benefits (cheap and renewable energy), also several risks. Such a dynamic development of photovoltaic installations carries the risk of generating large amounts of waste, which in the future will have to be recycled or stored in landfills. This publication aims to assess the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the recovery of secondary raw materials from used solar panels. For this purpose, a literature review was carried out, taking into account the detailed structure of the panel and the problems related to its recycling. In addition, an analysis of panel production and recycling both in Poland and globally is presented.