Solar Panel Recycling Information

Have you been wondering about the lifespan of the average solar panel?  Solar panels have a lifetime of approximately 30 years. With the increasing quantity of solar panels being sold and installed in the United States each year, it’s only a matter of time before high volumes of silicon solar panels are at the end of their useful life and have to be disposed of. Solar panel recycling is still at a very primitive stage, but as the market remains to grow, it will have an important part to play in the solar industry.

Solar panel recycling is important for the future of solar

In a lot of ways, solar power is cheap and environmentally friendly, until your solar panels have reached the end of their lifetime. After nearly 30 years, many crystalline silicon solar panels will start having significant dips in energy generation, and it may be time to replace them or dispose of them entirely.

Similar to any manufactured product, disposing of solar panels is hardly environmentally friendly. Heavy metals like cadmium and lead are located in solar cells, which can harm the natural environment if they are not recycled or disposed of correctly. Additionally, solar panels that are carelessly thrown away can end up in large landfills.

Also with environmental protection, recycling solar panels will be economically critical as well. Some of the rare elements in photovoltaic (PV) cells like gallium and indium are being exhausted from the environment over time. If we were able to improve those elements, we can conserve the limited number available on earth and continue to use them for solar panels and other goods. Furthermore, a 2016 investigation by the International Renewable Agency (IRENA) estimated that $15 billion could be produced from recycling solar modules by the year 2050.

When do solar panels need to be recycled?

In the scope of a lifetime of nearly 30 years on average, crystalline silicon solar panels don’t become obsolete very suddenly. However, given the rapid development of the solar industry, the number of solar panels needing to be recycled or disposed of in the coming years will proceed to increase. More and more panels will reach the end of their life each year, and even now, old solar panels are beginning to become a dilemma.

What parts of solar panels can be recycled?

Recycling solar panels can only be useful if the materials used to build them can be used again, 30 or more years later. Solar panels are composed from several components like Silicon solar cells, Metal framing, Glass sheets, Wires, and Plexiglas. Right away, it’s clear that many of the core elements of solar panels can be recycled on their own. Metal, glass, and wiring can all be recycled and reused. Silicon cells, the element that is most crucial to producing electricity, are a slightly unconventional story. While silicon wafers are not recyclable like glass and plastic are, some specialty recycling businesses can reuse silicon cells by melting them down and reclaiming the silicon and various metals. The difficulty with recycling solar panels isn’t that the elements they are made from are hard to recover; instead, it’s that they are assembled from many parts all used together in one product. Separating those materials and uniquely recycling them each is a complex and potentially expensive process.

This was great information on what to do if you have old panels.  But, if you need new panels, HahaSmart can help you with whatever you need in the solar panel department. We can help you find a great price, and a local installer that will help you with your next solar project.

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