Energetica India Magazine: september 2020

SOLAR POWER solar manufacturing sector, the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has noted that solar cells used in panels will be deemed as domestical - ly manufactured only if they are made in India with un-diffused silicon wafers or black wafers. To qualify for benefits un - der a number of MNRE schemes such as Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthan Mahaabhiyan (KUSUM) manufactur - ers must demonstrate they have used domestically manufactured solar PV cells. Manufacturers who use imported semi-processed solar PV cells (blue wa - fers) in their units will not qualify under the scheme because too little local val - ue-addition is involved. The government wants to boost upstream manufacturing where currently there are limited polysil - icon, wafer, and cell production facilities to support domestic requirements. This would also help with the govern - ment’s Make in India policy, which recog - nizes solar manufacturing as an industry having ‘strategic importance’. Further, the Draft Battery Waste Man - agement Rules, 2020 by MoEFCC cover all types of batteries regardless of their shape, volume, weight, material, and composition, or use, and have also em - phasized on EPR and included in it is the responsibility of manufacturer, importer, assembler and re-conditioner to ensure that the used batteries are collected back against the new batteries that are sold. Key elements of resource efficiency and circular economy strategy for so- lar PV technology To be able to convert possible future environmental and resource security related challenges into opportunities, resource efficiency and circular econo - my strategy should be developed for the solar technologies that focus on certain key elements such as: • Responsible product designs to de - crease material consumption and en - able end of life recovery of secondary raw material: Standardized and easily dismantled solar PV module designs that also enable use of secondary raw mate - rials can be promoted by setting up of modest targets. Rebates and incentives on new installation of new PV modules using recycled raw materials can help in nudging behaviours. For example, silver consumption can be reduced by substituting it with nearly pure recycled silver. Reducing glass thickness by 45% through the use of anti-reflective coating can also significantly save materials and aluminium consumption. Use of alumin - ium as a framing material for solar PVs could also be reduced by introducing frameless modules. • Promotion of proper solar panel recy - cling infrastructure: The Union Ministry of Information Technology (IT) is already pi - loting technologies for efficient recovery of materials from end of life solar PVs at Centre for Materials for Electronics Tech - nology. Once these technologies work, they can be made available to business - es so that their existing facilities and re - verse logistics network can help acquire discarded modules for dismantling and recovery of materials from PV modules. • Sourcing back used components at end-of-life stage: Realistic and achiev - able PV panel collection targets for man - ufacturers and distributors as a part of Extended Producer (EPR) should be explored. Dealers’ network for buyback of end-of-life solar rooftop panels holds the key while for large-scale projects, developers and original equipment man - ufacturers need to come together. The cost of take-back arrangement needs to be specified within the total cost of in - stallation. Further, the business models could have the financial viability based on a producer-financed compliance fee or consumer-financed end-of-life fee. Enforcement mechanism for such con - tracts should be designed by the gov - ernment in their tenders/schemes or PPA agreements. • Capacity building and awareness generation for managing end-of-life waste: Guidelines should be issued that specifically provide a methodology for safe disposal and management of the solar cells or modules, for which there should be organized skill and training programs. Labelling and standards that could be adopted for recycled/second - ary products also need to be defined. These activities can be undertaken close to where PV manufacturing takes place, thus facilitating the creation of a suitable ecosystem. Awareness genera - tion through showcasing innovation and good practices and exploring potential for up scaling of the new technologies for end-of-life solar PV needs to be un - dertaken hand-in-hand with other initia - tives. • Strengthen research and develop - ment: India needs to invest quickly in new research including that focussed on developing new technology for manu - facturing solar cells from alternative ma - terials and with improved efficiency. • Integrating EPR into the end-of-life management framework: This is a key approach to promoting circularity in the sector. The European Union’s (EU) Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directives impose recycling re - quirements on solar panel manufactur - ers and mandate the fabrication of new panels using recycled components. The Indian E-Waste Rules of 2016 currently does not include solar PV panels, imply - ing that it still continues to be handled in an informal and inefficient manner. While the solar sector continues to grow robustly, the time is appropriate to pro - mote integrated thinking that will help in using the 6R principles along the production consumption chain. By the time India achieves a leading position in solar based electricity in the coming years, presence of established scalable material recovery technologies, effective reverse logistics backed by supportive policies and finances will definitely en - sure a resource efficient, self-reliant re - newable energy sector India. 25 energetica INDIA- September_2020