[PL] Plenary Talk

[14M-PL1] Metallurgy-Inspired Solar Panels Recycling

*Y. Shen¹ (1.University of New South Wales, Australia)

Keywords:recycling, solar panels, metallurgy

The rapid growth in c-Si photovoltaic solar panel installations has made end-of-life panel recycling an important topic – both an environmental challenge and a business opportunity. Current recycling technologies are impractical, attributed to low energy efficiency, high cost and harmful chemicals. It is therefore necessary to develop a highly efficient and low-cost recycling system to recycle end-of-life solar panels. c-Si Solar panel recycling is, in nature, a metallurgical process. Inspired by well-developed metallurgy engineering, a highly efficient low-cost closed-loop recycling system to recover valuable metals and silicon from end-of-life solar panels, by means of leveraging interdisciplinary research expertise in metallurgy (pyro- and hydro-metallurgy), photovoltaics, waste treatment, and close collaboration with industry partners across the whole supply chain. It is technically achieved by combining state-of-the-art research methods, including extensive computer simulations for system design and scale-up, lab- and pilot-scale experiments for system demonstration, and life cycle, economic and policy analyses for overall system evaluation. The outcomes include a prototype of a photovoltaic panel recycling system and scalable computer models. It provides a cost-effective, closed-loop and practical solution to recycling photovoltaic panels, ultimately allowing for a more competitive and sustainable photovoltaic industry globally.