Energetica India 89 - May 2020

38 energetica INDIA- May_2020 an expansion of the extended-producer-responsibility (EPR), shouldset the targets for collection and recovery efficiency of waste, andlay out financing schemes for the same. Under the extended EPR, the developers should report the sale of their products, collect the damaged or discarded products from consumers free of cost, and update the status of their targets. They should also maintain transparency and inform the consumers of the procedures and the economics of module and battery waste management. This information should be mentioned on the products to be easily accessible by the consumers. Secondly, as the current recycling processes are capital in- tensive, access to finance is crucial. Depending on the market share, the Indian developers can choose any of the globally available financing models such as pay-as-you-go, pay-as- you-put, and joint-and-several liability scheme.In the pay-as- you-go model, the developer pays for the process at the time of waste creation. This model is often implemented with a last-man-standing insurance. The insurance covers for an un- foreseen event of a developer going out of business. In such scenario, the insurance company finances the waste collec - tion and recovery.On the contrary, the pay-as-you-put model requires pre-allocating a fixed amount for the waste manage - ment process. First Solar, a leading solar module manufac- turer in the US, uses this approach for recycling the waste from its modules. With the sale of each module, it sets aside a lump sum to meet the estimated future collection and recy- cling cost of its modules.In addition to these two models, the developers can also opt for acollective producer responsibility scheme. Here, they jointly set a financing guarantee with last- man-standing insuranceto pay for the collection and recycling costs corresponding to the market share of their products. Then, they use the pay-as-you-go model to cover the cost of managing the waste from their products. This model is suc- cessfully implemented in Germany. Thirdly, a market driven initiative is important for a thriving waste collection and recyclingindustry. The various stakehold- ers ofthe Indian solar industryshould take responsibility to in- vest in recycling technologies, finance routes, and feasibility examination bypilot projects. It can learn from the Solar Ener- gy Industries Association (SEIA) in the US and Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO), which have taken a lead on clean energy waste col- lection and management. SEIA, a not-for-profit trade associa - tion of the US solar energy industry is maintaining a corporate social responsibility committee to develop and review the re- search in recycling technologies. It introduces the develop- ers to recycling vendors and provides financing options for waste collection and management. Some of the members are already operating the take-back and recycling programs for their products. In Japan, NEDO has been undertaking exten- sive research activities for PV recycling. In 2014, it developed an automated PV recycling technology that separates different types of panels (crystalline Si, thin-film) to recover valuable materials such as aluminium, Si, glass, and metal semicon- ductor. This technology is currently in the experimental phase. In India, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has endorsed several solar associations such as the Nation- al Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI), the Indian Solar Manufacturers Association (ISMA), and the Federation of In- dian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) Renewable Energy. These associations can collaborate to develop guide- lines for reporting the sale and damage of modules, invest in new recycling technologies and examine the feasibility of existing services, and create a financing scheme for the same. As distributed renewable energy sources such as solar PV and energy storage penetrate deep into the Indian electricity sec- tor, it is necessary to prepare for managing the waste generat- ed from these technologies. In addition to being environmen- tally benign, the‘reduce, reuse, and recover’ approach offers multiple socio-economic co-benefits. The local manufacturing industry will be benefit from decreased dependence on import of raw materials. It is imperative forthe governmentto introduce a holistic policy framework forhandling the waste from clean energy technologies, highlighting the responsibility of different stakeholders and creating an enabling environment to imple- ment the same. (Disclaimer: Please note that this article was originally published on TERI platform.) SOLAR POWER