Excerpt from Semprius:
With solar energy continuing to gain popularity across the world as a cheap and sustainable energy source, many are questioning what happens once the photovoltaic (PV) panels exceed their lifespan. Solar currently accounts for 2% of global electricity production and rising, “We want to get that up to 50% [of global electricity production],” explains Miro Zeman, head of the Electrical Sustainable Energy department at Delft University, “This percentage is rising because it is getting cheaper to generate electricity from solar energy and in some places it is even the cheapest form of usable energy.”
However, as renewable energy prices continue to drop and becomes more enticing for utilities and private citizens to partake in, focus has sharpened on how to deal with the high number of solar panels that will need to be uninstalled following the end of their lifespan – which is often cited as being up to 25-years! Several European nations began installing PVs on a large scale in the 1990s and as they’ve been decommissioned and replaced the question was posed – can these solar panels be reused or recycled?
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