With the large-scale utilization of photovoltaic power generation, decommissioning and recycling of waste photovoltaic modules have become an obvious problem, which also brings huge new business opportunities to the industry.
The third university, this paper extracts from France to mulan Leon sustainable development graduate thesis "the sustainable development of the solar industry - focus on waste recycling, photovoltaic modules, this paper waste recycling of photovoltaic modules in-depth analysis and research, the author's double Mr Right in the photovoltaic manufacturing industry for more than ten years, He is currently the executive president of Wuxi Suntech Solar Power Co., LTD., and the executive director of Wuxi New Energy Chamber of Commerce. His insights are profound and wise.
Since the introduction of the online benchmark electricity price in 2014, the installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation in China has grown rapidly and maintained an average annual growth rate of more than 100%. At present, the cumulative installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation in China has exceeded 200GW, and it is expected that in 2022, the cumulative installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation in China will break through 300GW.
With the rapid development of photovoltaic power generation, the problem of recycling and reuse of waste photovoltaic modules is derived. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is expected to 2030, the cumulative waste of photovoltaic modules worldwide will reach millions of tons; By 2050, it will reach tens of millions of tons. In addition, according to the Prediction of the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, starting from 2020, the amount of waste photovoltaic modules in China will also increase significantly. By 2030, the domestic waste photovoltaic modules can produce 1.45 million tons of carbon steel, 1.1 million tons of glass, 540,000 tons of plastic, 260,000 tons of aluminum, 170,000 tons of copper, 50,000 tons of silicon and 550 tons of silver.
The research results of the 863 project of the Ministry of Science and Technology show that, even if the existing photovoltaic power stations are well maintained, by 2034, the domestic decommissioned photovoltaic modules will reach nearly 60GW. If the operation and maintenance of the plant is normal, the cumulative decommissioned components are likely to exceed 70GW. By 2050, China's waste pv modules will reach 20 million tons, 2,000 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower, according to Lu Fang, a member of the research team and secretary-general of the Photovoltaic Committee of the China Green Supply Chain Alliance.
On the one hand, if these waste components are not properly disposed of, they will bring serious negative impacts on the environment and society, making the original "green" intention no longer "green".
On the other hand, the new energy industry is the main connotation and important support of low-carbon development and green economy, which is the driving force of the new energy industry. When the problem of waste pv panel price left by the development of photovoltaic industry can not be properly solved, it will inevitably hinder the sustainable development of photovoltaic industry.
The traditional development mode based on resource and energy consumption has posed increasingly severe challenges to the living environment of human beings. Green development and the development and utilization of clean energy have become the main theme of development all over the world. In this process, the photovoltaic industry has played an important role and will play a greater historical role.
But at the same time, the large-scale application of photovoltaic power generation, but derived from the waste photovoltaic module recycling problem. Therefore, the research on decommissioning and recycling of waste photovoltaic modules has quite positive practical significance.
First of all, the recycling of waste photovoltaic modules is conducive to the reuse of resources.
The large-scale application of solar photovoltaic technology will greatly increase the consumption of some rare metals. For example, the electrode preparation of crystalline silicon cell requires the consumption of silver, tellurium, indium, gallium and so on. These materials also have a wide range of applications in other cutting-edge technologies. If the photovoltaic module scrap, not one of the rare metal recycling, is bound to cause a great waste.
According to PV CYCLE, glass accounts for about 70% of the total weight of used PV modules, aluminium 18% and semiconductors 4%.
In other words, photovoltaic modules are mostly made of recyclable materials. Through the recycling and reuse of waste photovoltaic modules, the recycling of rare metals, glass, aluminum and semiconductors can be achieved to reduce the exploitation of native resources, reduce the energy consumption of resource extraction and reduce the impact and damage to the ecological environment.
Secondly, the recycling of waste photovoltaic modules can give birth to new industrial forms and create more employment value.
From the current recycling process of waste photovoltaic modules in Europe, the whole operation and management process of waste photovoltaic module processing includes collection, registration, transportation, recycling and recycling, etc., and each link requires a large number of personnel to participate, especially professional recycling technicians. Therefore, the recycling of waste photovoltaic modules can give birth to new industrial forms and create more employment value.
Moreover, the recycling of waste photovoltaic modules is conducive to realizing the real green of photovoltaic power generation in the whole life cycle, thus promoting the sustainable development of the solar energy industry.
Since the industrialization of photovoltaic power generation technology, governments and enterprises are actively committed to the green production and operation of photovoltaic power generation. So far, the industrial chain of crystalline silicon photovoltaic technology, from raw material production, cell manufacturing, module processing to system installation and operation, has achieved pollution-free and environmentally friendly requirements, but the arbitrary disposal of waste photovoltaic modules has spawned many environmental pollution problems.
The new energy industry is the main connotation and important support of low-carbon development and green economy, while low-carbon development and green economy are the driving force of the new energy industry, and the two complement each other. Therefore, only the recycling of waste photovoltaic modules, the last link of the photovoltaic industry chain, can realize the photovoltaic industry from the source to the end of the green pollution-free, so as to promote the sustainable development of the solar industry.