Energetica India Magazine: september 2020

SOLAR POWER Emerging opportunities in promoting circular economy in Solar PV value chain The Indian government has recognized the need to have a policy framework aimed at creating a diversified do - mestic manufacturing industry for solar equipment (including modules and its ancillary products) and at the same time also promoting end-of-life management for recovery and recycling of secondary raw materials. 24 energetica INDIA- September_2020 Renewable energy holds significant po - tential in the context of energy security and decarbonisation of the Indian econ - omy given its rich endowment of natural and renewable sources, such as solar, wind, biomass, small hydro, and the like due to its geographic location near the tropics. Further, given India’s commit - ment of 40 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fos - sil-fuel energy resources by 2030 as a part of its pledge to the Paris Agreement, it expects to have 450 GW (including 300 GW of solar) of power generation capacity from renewables by 2030. Solar energy, in the form of large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment, is envisaged in a large way. However, there are challenges linked to the availability of raw material for domestic manufacturing of key components under this technol - ogy (such as solar cells/ modules) and the challenges related to the disposal and management of these components at the end of life. For many of the raw ma - terials required, India currently is import dependent. Additionally, in the absence of enough manufacturing capacities, partially related to and also complicat - ed by expensive raw materials, there are potential threats of price volatility that could affect the deployment of re - newable energy at further competitive prices in the future. For example, India depends heavily on imports of silver, which is a core element in manufacturing solar panels, and copper which is used in solar PVs. Prices of pure metallurgical silicon, the most important raw material for solar cells and majorly supplied by China, has risen in recent months by as much as 35% due to multiple factors. Further, many of the solar photovoltaic PVs will be reaching end of life given that the expected useful working life of solar PV modules is between 25 and 30 years, after which they have to be discarded. Parts damaged during transportation, installation, operation, or even natural calamities also become PV waste. Es - timates by TERI have suggested that the current 31 GW solar capacity alone would result in 107,000 tons of solar PV waste by 2022.Of this, about 24,000 tons would result from damages during trans - portation and installation and the rest (about 82,000 tons) from early failures during the plant operation phase. This amount will continue to grow as more so - lar capacity is deployed in future. Further waste is expected from the conventional lead acid and more importantly recent lithium ion and lithium iron phosphate batteries, which in the absence of a reg - ulatory framework could end up in land - fills, adversely impacting the very environment. These challenges, however, have the potential to create unprecedented op - portunities in securing domestic resourc - es using resource efficient and circular strategies focussed on a life cycle ap - proach towards solar energy technology. Resource recovered from components of end-of-life of solar PVs and storage systems can be used again in the sec - tor itself and even other sectors. An approach like this can also contribute to employment generation, particularly in the recovery and recycling of used material from discarded/waste solar equipment, while promoting investment opportunities in technologies for material recovery and its recycling. The Indian government has recognized the need to have a policy framework aimed at creating a diversified domestic manufacturing industry for solar equip - ment (including modules and its ancil - lary products) and at the same time also promoting end-of-life management for recovery and recycling of secondary raw materials. For example, with an ob - jective to safeguard domestic manufac - turers and to boost the local upstream Mr Souvik Bhattacharjya Associate Director, Integrated Policy Analysis Division, TERI Dr. Shilpi Kapur Bakshi Senior Fellow, TERI