Increasing solar waste and absence of policy

Solar waste disposal policies - What's up in India

Increasing solar waste and absence of policy

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• The story: While India ramps up its solar power capacity in a big way, it does not yet have a firm policy on managing waste that results from used solar panels or from the manufacturing process.
• Key points: The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Dec 2021 estimated that the global photovoltaic waste will touch 78 million tonnes by 2050, with India expected to be one of the top five generators of such waste.

1. India currently considers solar waste a part of electronic waste and does not account for it separately.
2. A committee was constituted under the chairmanship of the Ministry’s Secretary to propose an action plan to evolve a “circular economy” in solar panel, through reuse/recycling of waste generated.
3. There was no commercial raw material recovery facility for solar e-waste operational in India, but a pilot facility for solar panel recycling and material recovery had been set up by a private company in Gummidipoondi in Tamil Nadu.
4. India has set a target of producing 100 GW of solar energy by 2022. It is on its way to achieving it as well.

• What is Solar waste: The electronic waste generated by discarded solar panels — is sold as scrap in the country. It can increase by at least four-five-fold by the next decade. India should focus its attention on drafting comprehensive rules to deal with solar waste. While photovoltaics generates only about 3 per cent of global electricity, they consume 40 per cent of the world’s tellurium, 15 per cent of the world’s silver, a substantial chunk of semiconductor-grade quartz and lesser but still significant amounts of indium, zinc, tin and gallium.
• Solar power in India: The cumulative capacity of grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) installations is around 40 GW and of the current capacity, about 35.6 GW, is generated from ground-mounted plants and 4.4 GW from rooftop solar. A gigawatt is 1,000 megawatts.
• Solar waste in India: Solar panels have an estimated life of 25 years, and given that India’s solar manufacturing industry took off around 2010, most of the installed systems were new and early in their calendar lifecycle and therefore unlikely to generate a large quantity of solar waste. But it is only partially accurate, according to the Council for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a Delhi based think-tank. End-of-life was only one of the possible waste streams for PV modules and there were several other stages where modules could get damaged. Additionally, modules could develop defects during the plant operations and be discarded even before their scheduled life span. In the CEEW’s reckoning, PV modules had so far likely generated a cumulative waste of nearly 2,85,000 tonnes, as of FY21, from the early-life loss of the installed 40 GW grid-connected solar capacity.
• Why not recycling: The two most popular module technologies in India are crystallised silicon (C-Si) and thin-film (mainly cadmium telluride, CdTe), with 93 and 7 per cent market shares respectively. Both the technologies have a recovery rate of 85-90 per cent. The market value of raw materials recovered from solar panels could reach $450 million by 2030, according to a projection by the International Renewable Energy Agency. This number of raw materials is approximately the same as that required to build 60 million new solar panels or to generate 18 GW of electricity. The value of recoverable materials might surpass $15 billion by 2050, which would be enough to power 630 GW with two billion solar panels. Globally, it is expected that end-of-life (EoL) of solar panels will drive the solar panel recycling business in the next 10-20 years. The large cost gap between recycling and discarding panels in landfills points to an unpleasant truth: The process generates roughly $3 in revenue from the recovery of certain materials. Recycling a solar panel cost between $20 and $30, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory; sending it to a landfill costs $1-2.
• How are others handling: The EU is clearly ahead of other regions in terms of framing and implementing waste management policies for PV waste. The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive of the EU imposes responsibility for the disposal of waste on the manufacturers or distributors who introduce or install such equipment for the first time. PV manufacturers are solely responsible for the collection, handling and treatment of modules at the end of their lifecycle, according to the WEEE Directive. Most of the EU member states have come up with directives for collecting, handling and management of PV waste. The UK also has an industry-managed “take-back and recycling scheme”, where all PV producers will need to register and submit data related to products used for the residential solar market (B2C) and non-residential market. While there are no federal statutes or regulations in the United States that talk about recycling, there are some states who have proactively defined policies to address end-of-life PV module management. Washington and California have come up with extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations. Washington now requires PV module manufacturers to finance the take-back and reuse or recycling of PV modules sold within or into the state at no cost to the end-user. In addition, New Jersey and North Carolina passed legislation in 2019 to study and explore PV module management options that can help in forming future legislations. The federal government In Australia has acknowledged the concern and announced $2 million grant as part of the National Product Stewardship Investment Fund to develop and implement an industry-led product stewardship scheme for PV systems. It is expected that the scheme will encourage shared responsibility throughout the supply chain to manage the impacts of PV modules through their life cycle and support the development of an efficient and innovative domestic PV recycling industry. Countries such as Japan and South Korea have already indicated their resolve to come up with dedicated legislation to address the PV waste problem.
• Roadmap to resource-efficient solar energy:

1. Strong e-waste or renewable energy waste laws: EPR for the manufacturer and developers to take responsibility for end-of-life the solar panel. PV modules were the first to be included in the EU’s WEEE regulations. It includes options for financing waste management.
2. Infrastructure: To bring down the cost of recycling infrastructure investment is required, coordination between the energy and waste sector to efficiently handle the renewable energy waste and build more recycling plants to avoid solar panels to end up in landfills.
3. Ban on Landfills: Solar panel waste is harmful to the environment as it contains toxic metals and minerals that may seep in the ground.
4. Research and Development: Innovation in design may have an impact on the type of waste they generate; technology advancements will be significant in reducing the impact of renewable energy waste. New panels, for example, use less silicon and produce less waste during the manufacturing process.

• Summary: Despite its ambitious expansion plans, much of India’s solar PV manufacturing uses imported components with parts mostly sourced from China. India needs a three-pronged approach to handle the mammoth quantum of PV waste it will generate in the next 10 years.
• EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Is India ready to handle tonnes of Solar waste that will be generated in coming years? Comment analytically. (2) There is an urgent need to have a solid Solar waste policy in India. Comment in the light of increasing amount of solar waste.

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