TRANSFORMING PV WASTE TO A RESOURCE

Growing resource consumption comes at a cost of the environment. As the global deployment of PV approaches terawatt levels in an increasingly resource-constrained world, resource efficiency strategies adopted for PV manufacturing combined with end-of-life high-value recycling are essential to promote a circular economy and transform PV waste into valuable secondary raw materials for other industries. In this article, Karen Drozdiak, Andreas Wade, and Sujoy Ghosh describe how First Solar continues to proactively invest in the improvement of the recycling technology to increase resource efficiency and drive down recycling prices for its customers.

- Karen Drozdiak, Andreas Wade, and Sujoy Ghosh

The global consumption of natural resources has more than tripled since the 1970s and it accounts for half of the total global greenhouse gas emissions and more than 90% of biodiversity loss and water stress. The United Nations’ International Resource Panel warns that global natural resource consumption could more than double by 2050, driven by economic growth, population growth, and unsustainable production and consumption patterns.

As one of the fastest-growing economies, India has experienced first-hand how growing resource consumption comes at a cost of the environment. In this context, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change recently released a Draft National Resource Efficiency Policy that aims to enhance resource efficiency and promote the use of secondary raw materials in order to decouple the country’s economic growth from negative environmental impacts. Circular economy strategies are also important for the photovoltaic (PV) industry as India aims to install 100 GW of solar by 2022 under its National Solar Mission. Under an ambitious solar deployment scenario of 170 GW by 2030, the total estimated demand for materials is expected to increase from 0.7 million tons in 2015 to 12 million tons in 2030.