2023-07-12 05:31:45
First-generation photovoltaic panels are reaching the end of their life. What to do with the wave of obsolete equipment that will soon surge? One solution: reuse their components. The world’s first complete recycling plant has just been inaugurated in Isère, near Grenoble.
Thanks to a low-polluting method, the installation makes it possible to recover almost 100% of the components of the solar cells. “The panels installed 20 or 30 years ago are reaching the end of their life. They must therefore be recycled”, declares in the 7:30 p.m. Yun Luo, the director of the company ROSI Solar, which has just opened in Saint-Honoré this unique processing center. “So there is now a market need that is starting,” adds Yun Luo.
“It is the first plant in the world to recover the most critical and valuable materials in photovoltaic panels”, indicates Antoine Chalaux, general manager of ROSI Solar. In addition to glass, “these materials are silicon, silver and copper. We need them to continue to develop photovoltaics in the world”, he develops. These materials can also be used in batteries or electronics.
The first step in recycling solar panels is to go through an oven to melt the plastic. [RTS]
The panels are first passed through an oven to melt their plastic envelopes. The next step is a mechanical separation of the glass and the metals of interest. To completely dissociate these, a mild, low-polluting chemical bath is used. This is the specialty of ROSI Solar.
Millions of tons to process
The question of profitability remains. “We can count that from regarding 3000 tons of capacity, it starts to be profitable,” says Yun Luo.
But by 2050, there will be 78 million tons of solar panels to be processed in the world, instead of crushing them as is done at present. This market is estimated at $15 billion.
“The difficulty is to master thermal and chemical processes on a large scale, without it being too expensive, because it is still recycling”, underlines Antoine Chalaux.
Other companies should follow
According to Pasqual Zopp, the director of the Swiss foundation ENS eRecycling and expert in the collection of electronic devices, recycling is certainly a challenge, but it is not impossible: “With an improvement in the treatment processes, the obstacles for the installation number of solar panels will be even smaller. These processes will also benefit from further innovations. With the increasing number of panels to be recycled, other companies will embark on this field, also in Switzerland”, he says.
In the end, recycling might make it possible to avoid returning to the end of the world, such as to China, to find the basic materials necessary for the manufacture of future solar panels.
Olivier Dessibourg/friend
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