Potential Economic And Environmental Impacts Of Recycling End-of-life Solar Panels In China With Emphasis On Gallium And Indium

With fossils fuels almost being exhausted,scientists have been searching for the best source of renewable energy and has since determined that the use of solar energy will be the most efficient.PV technologies has improved significantly over the years;the first generation of PV cells relied on the use crystalline silicon in order to produce solar energy but in recent years thin film PV technology is becoming very popular as it relies on thinner absorber materials such as gallium and indium to produce solar energy.Of all the thin film solar panels,the one that is of great interest to scientists is CIGS solar panels due to its high efficiency,energy yield and lowest cost as compared to other types of solar panels.This research aims to determine the potential economic benefits and environmental impacts that may occur from recycling EOL CIGS PV modules in China to obtain gallium and indium.Two methodologies were designed,one to make an economic assessment and the other to make an environmental assessment.The system boundary for the economic assessment was the investment cost and the operational cost and the research tool used was the life cycle cost benefit analysis.To make an economic assessment,the exact number of CIGS PV technologies currently installed in China could not be obtained,hence four market scenarios were created based on the global market share of CIGS PV technologies from the year 2011 to 2014 and the current price of gallium and indium in china;and from this,the projected revenues to be earned from gallium and indium were calculated.Based on the system boundary,the annual costs of the various categories was calculated from which the difference between the expenses and the revenues to be earned was then determined.The system boundary used for the environmental assessment was an energy analysis,carbon analysis and qualitative analysis of the chemicals used in the production of primary and secondary gallium and indium.The difference in energy requirement and carbon emissions from primary production and secondary production of gallium and indium was then determined and compared.The results from this research has proven that by recycling EOL CIGS solar panels,the market supply of gallium and indium increases and it creates less economic burden on the environment as various processes which are big contributors to GHGs such as mining and smelting are being avoided.However,it has also been proven that the total expenses to be incurred from material recovery far surpasses that of the profits to be earned.Hence,it can be concluded that it is of vital importance to ensure that actions are taken to establish and promote efficient recycling and various incentives are provided to boost the recycling sector for the solar panel industry.