End of life management of crystalline silicon and cadmium telluride photovoltaic modules utilising life cycle assessment

• The rapid global adoption of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules created the issue of recycling and disposal at their end of life. Several PV modules installed in the late 1980s or early 1990s have reached the end of their 30-year useful life and are now being removed as PV trash. This enormous amount of PV trash acknowledges recycling as a crucial and significant area in the value chain of PV industries. Hence, this study uses an end-of-life perspective to discuss the life cycle evaluation of two market-dominant PV technologies— c-Si and CdTe. This method examines recycling and avoided burden due to recovered material independently in order to determine the overall environmental benefit. The study concludes that recycling glass, metals like copper and aluminium, and semiconductor material from both c-Si and CdTe PV modules has a lower environmental effect than mining, providing, and refining the same components from original sources. © 2023 The Author(s)

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Naturresursteknik -- Energisystem (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Environmental Engineering -- Energy Systems (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Environmental impact assessment

Green manufacturing

Life cycle assessment

Solar technologies

Sustainable manufacturing

Environmental impact assessments

II-VI semiconductors

Life cycle

Recycling

Silicon compounds

Solar panels

Solar power generation

cadmium telluride

crystalline silicon

environmental chemical

unclassified drug

Crystalline silicons

End of life managements

End of lives

End-of-life managements

Photovoltaic modules

Photovoltaics

Solar technology

green economy

life cycle analysis

manufacturing

photovoltaic system

solar power

sustainable development

Article

environmental impact

mining

photovoltaic

physical phenomena

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)