Energetica India Magazine -October 2020

SOLAR POWER Solar Module Waste: The Unresolved Hazard For the solar recycling industry to grow sustainably, it will ultimately need supportive policies and regulations. The EU model of having producers finance the take-back and recycling of solar panels might be a good one to emu- late. But before that is going to happen, we need to recognize that the problem exists and is going to get bigger. 46 energetica INDIA- October_2020 Anirudh Aggarwal Business Growth, HomeScape Solar Solar modules are an important source of renewable power that plays an essen- tial role in fighting climate change. They are also complex pieces of technology that become big, bulky sheets of elec - tronic waste at the end of their lives— and right now, we do not have a plan to deal with that. But we need to develop one soon. Bridge to India (BTI) has estimated the solar module waste volume to grow to 1.8 mil - lion tonnes by 2050, which is close to the total e-waste volume being annually generated in India currently. Standard electronic recycling methods do not cut it for solar panels; recovering the most valuable materials from one, including silver and silicon, requires bespoke re - cycling solutions. And if we fail to devel - op those solutions along with policies that support their widespread adoption, we already know what will happen. According to BTI, the government needs to bring out a policy on solar module waste management and standards for use of material for manufacturing. There is an urgent need to formulate appropri - ate quality standards for use of environ - mentally sustainable materials in man- ufacturing of modules. This will help in minimizing potentially hazardous end-of- life module waste in India. The European Union (EU) already has an Eco-Design Directive 2009, a policy instrument to re - duce environmental impact of energy-re - lated products throughout their life cycle. India started deploying solar widely since the early 2000s, hence a fair - ly small number of modules are being decommissioned today, which also in - cludes modules that were decommis- sioned early because they were dam- aged during a storm, had some sort of manufacturing defect, or got replaced with a newer, more efficient model. And when these solar panels reach end of their cycle today, they face a few pos - sible fates. According to a report by BTI India add - ed 351MW of solar power generation ca - pacity in Q2 2020 taking total installed capacity to 38,377MW by 30 June 2020. Currently, India neither has a requisite policy guideline nor a minimal opera - tional infrastructure to ensure recycling of module waste using conventional re - cycling technologies. Most of the central bidding documents rest the responsibil - ity of handling and disposing photo vol - taic (PV) waste on the developers as per E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011. India is poorly positioned to handle PV waste as it does not yet have poli- cy guidelines on the same. The lack of a policy framework is coupled with the fact that even basic recycling facilities for laminated glass and e-waste are un - available. Despite the e-waste regulation being in place for over seven years, only less than 4% of estimated e-waste is re- cycled in the organized sector as per the latest estimates from the Central Pollu- tion Control Board. Mandating recycling is the need of the hour else most of these modules will go to landfill. Solar modules use potential - ly hazardous materials, including lead compounds, polymers and cadmium compounds, land filling also creates new environmental hazards as the toxic ma- terials can leach out as they break down and valuable naturals resources would go to waste. As per reports right now, we are recycling around 10 percent of solar panels, the rest goes to landfills or are exported overseas for reuse in develop- ing countries with weak environmental protections. Also, the cost recycling is also not commercially attractive right now, the cost of recycling the panel in the US is between $12 and $25— after transportation costs, which “oftentimes equal the cost to recycle.” At the same