Economic Feasibility of Recycling Photovoltaic Modules

The market for photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation has boomed over the last decade, and its expansion is expected to continue with the development of new technologies. Taking into consideration the usage of valuable resources and the generation of emissions in the life cycle of photovoltaic technologies dictates proactive planning for a sound PV recycling infrastructure to ensure its sustainability. PV is expected to be a green technology, and properly planning for recycling will offer the opportunity to make it a double-green technology - that is, enhancing life cycle environmental quality. In addition, economic feasibility and a sufficient level of value-added opportunity must be ensured, to stimulate a recycling industry. In this article, we survey mathematical models of the infrastructure of recycling processes of other products and identify the challenges for setting up an efficient one for PV. Then we present an operational model for an actual recycling process of a thin-film PV technology. We found that for the case examined with our model, some of the scenarios indicate profitable recycling, whereas in other scenarios it is unprofitable. Scenario SC4, which represents the most favorable scenario by considering the lower bounds of all costs and the upper bound of all revenues, produces a monthly profit of $107,000, whereas the least favorable scenario incurs a monthly loss of $151,000. Our intent is to extend the model as a foundation for developing a framework for building a generalized model for current-PV and future-PV technologies.

[1]  Hai-Yong Kang,et al.  Economic analysis of electronic waste recycling: modeling the cost and revenue of a materials recovery facility in California. , 2006, Environmental science & technology.

[2]  T. Spengler,et al.  Environmental integrated production and recycling management , 1997 .

[3]  V. Fthenakis,et al.  A solar grand plan. , 2008, Scientific American.

[4]  Hyung Chul Kim,et al.  Emissions from photovoltaic life cycles. , 2008, Environmental science & technology.

[5]  Manbir S. Sodhi,et al.  MODELLING MATERIAL SEPARATION PROCESSES IN BULK RECYCLING , 1999 .

[6]  Markus A. Reuter,et al.  Fundamental limits for the recycling of end-of-life vehicles , 2006 .

[7]  William Hoffman,et al.  THE "GREEN DESIGN ADVISOR": A TOOL FOR DESIGN FOR ENVIRONMENT , 1999 .

[8]  Pitipong Veerakamolmal,et al.  Optimizing reverse logistics scenarios: a cost-benefit study using IBM's WIT tool , 2002, Conference Record 2002 IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment (Cat. No.02CH37273).

[9]  Manbir S. Sodhi,et al.  Models for recycling electronics end-of-life products , 2001, OR Spectr..

[10]  Surendra M. Gupta,et al.  Economic Consequences of Increasing Polymer Content for the U.S. Automobile Recycling Infrastructure , 1997 .

[11]  de Aj Ad Ron,et al.  Determination of a disassembly strategy , 1996 .

[12]  P. D. Moscowitz,et al.  Model institutional infrastructures for recycling of photovoltaic modules , 1996 .

[13]  SOLAR GENERATION SOLAR ELECTRICITY FOR OVER ONE BILLION PEOPLE AND TWO MILLION JOBS BY 2020 , 2006 .

[14]  S. Gupta,et al.  Economic Impact of Aluminum‐Intensive Vehicles on the U.S. Automotive Recycling Infrastructure , 2000 .

[15]  Vasilis Fthenakis,et al.  End-of-life management and recycling of PV modules , 2000 .

[16]  Silvia Bargigli,et al.  Life cycle assessment and energy pay-back time of advanced photovoltaic modules : CdTe and CIS compared to poly-Si , 2007 .

[17]  S. Das,et al.  Characterization of material outputs from an electronics demanufacturing facility , 1999, Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment (Cat. No.99CH36357).

[18]  A. Salam.  The United Nations University. , 1973 .

[19]  J. Mason,et al.  The technical, geographical, and economic feasibility for solar energy to supply the energy needs of the US , 2009 .

[20]  Manbir S. Sodhi,et al.  Design for Bulk Recycling: Analysis of Materials Separation , 2000 .

[21]  A. Lambert.  Determining optimum disassembly sequences in electronic equipment , 2002 .

[22]  Thomas Spengler,et al.  Integrated planning of electronic scrap disassembly and bulk recycling , 2002, Conference Record 2002 IEEE International Symposium on Electronics and the Environment (Cat. No.02CH37273).

[23]  Vasilis Fthenakis,et al.  Sustainability of photovoltaics: The case for thin-film solar cells , 2009 .