Glass material returned to photovoltaic factory

Materials (Basel). 2023 Apr; 16 (7): 2848. Because of the increasing demand for photovoltaic energy and the generation of end-of-life photovoltaic waste forecast, the feasibility to produce glass substrates for photovoltaic application by recycling photovoltaic glass waste (PVWG) material was analyzed.

In general, PV glass waste and SKW are recycled using different methods. In the current work, an original method was presented for simultaneously recycling both types of PV waste. The effects of SiO 2 surface-layer removal and silicon separation from SKW were studied.

Photovoltaic wastes are multi-material composites that contain diverse materials, such as, glass, metal rods and plastic; the amount of these materials on the photovoltaic waste depends on the type of solar panel [ 5 ]. However, crystalline silicon cells panels are the dominant waste in the generation of photovoltaic residues [ 6 ].

Diverse pathways of solar panel waste glass recycling have been proposed; the most common is its reincorporation to the solar panel production [ 7, 8 ].

The increasing amount of PV waste has caused serious environmental pollution and waste of resources, , ; it has become a new major hazard. Therefore, critical technologies for clean and efficient PV waste recycling are urgently required. Recycling silicon from SKW significantly reduces energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Global cumulative installed PV capacity reached 734 GW in 2020, and it continues to grow at an annual rate of 8.9% . Solar PV will be the dominant renewable energy source in the future. However, the rapid development of the PV industry has inevitably generated an immense amount of PV waste.