Solar panel recycling

Solar panel recycling involves the recovery and repurposing of materials from photovoltaic panels, which, despite their varying types, share a common construction principle. Each panel consists of a “sandwich” structure made up of wires, silicon, and a layer of silver, all encapsulated within protective layers of plastic.

In light of environmental legislation regarding waste hierarchy (recycling and recovery before disposal), TYBET initiated research in 2020 to evaluate whether materials or fractions from end-of-life or technologically obsolete solar panels can be repurposed as raw materials for various industries.

After two years of testing various types of solar panels (including both new and older generations), we implemented two distinct technologies for the treatment and recycling of photovoltaic panel waste, classified under code 160214.

Both technologies begin with mechanical treatment, after which they diverge in the methods used to separate the resulting fractions:

• First recycling technology: This method involves the use of acids to leach metals from the panels, followed by an electrochemical process.
• Second recycling technology: This method, applicable to a specific type of solar panel, involves the mechanical delamination of glass, followed by granulometric sorting.

Through these recycling processes, we successfully recover 78% of the input materials for recycling, while the remaining 22% is utilized through R1 recovery processes.