Private and externality costs and benefits of recycling crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic panels

Abstract

With solar photovoltaics (PV) playing an increasing role in our global energy market, it is now timely and critical to understand the end of life management of the solar panels. Recycling the panels can be an important pathway, possibly recovering a considerable amount of materials and adding economic benefits from currently installed solar panels. Yet, to date, the costs and benefits of recycling, especially when externality costs resulting from environmental pollution are considered, are largely unknown. In this study, we quantified the private and externality costs and benefits of recycling crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV panels. We found that the private cost of end-of-life (EoL) management of the c-Si PV module is USD 6.7/m2 and much of this cost is from transporting (USD 3.3/m2) and landfilling (USD 3.1/m2), while the actual recycling process (the cost of consumed materials, electricity or the investment for the recycling facilities) is very small (USD 0.3/m2). We found that the external cost of PV EoL management is very similar to the private cost (USD 5.2/m2). Unlike the breakdown of the private costs, much of the externality costs (USD 4.08/m2) come from the recycling process, which suggests that more environmentally friendly methods (e.g., recycling methods that involve fewer toxic chemicals, acids, etc.) should be preferred. We estimated that the total economic value of the recycled materials from c-Si PV waste is USD 13.6/m2. This means that when externality costs are not considered, the net benefit of recycling is USD 6.7; when the externality cost of recycling is considered, there is still a net benefit of USD 1.19 per m2