On August 25, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "guidance on promoting the development of the energy electronics industry (draft)", will be "the development of advanced and efficient photovoltaic products and technology" as one of the key points, which requires to accelerate the construction of photovoltaic supply chain traceability system, promote photovoltaic module recycling technology research and development and industrial application. Just the day before, the ministry of general office, the general office of the market supervision administration, the National Energy Administration comprehensive department issued the notice on promoting the coordinated development of photovoltaic industry chain supply chain, requires "to strengthen the photovoltaic industry chain whole life cycle management and carbon footprint accounting, speed up the waste module recycling technology, standards and industrialization research". The demand for the recycling of waste photovoltaic modules is huge. According to the International Energy Agency, nearly 80 million tons of about 4.3 billion scrapped photovoltaic modules will need to be processed worldwide by 2050. China's installed photovoltaic power generation capacity is the first in the world, facing a more turbulent "decommissioning tide".
How to better cope with the challenges?
"Realize the real green in the whole life cycle of photovoltaic power generation"
Module retirement and recycling is regarded as the "last kilometer" of the photovoltaic industry chain. Only by doing this can we truly realize the green and no-pollution-free of the industry from the source to the terminal."From raw material production, battery manufacturing, component processing, to system installation and operation, we have now achieved environmentally friendly requirements. The random disposal of waste modules will breed many environmental problems, and good recycling is conducive to the realization of real green in the whole life cycle of photovoltaic power generation."Said by Wang Dongrong, Assistant President of China Power.
International Development Co., LTD., gave a set of data based on the weight of 250 watt modules, about 80,000 tons; selecting about 1.9.2 GW at the end of 2013,1.53 million tons of discarded modules by 2038, not including scrapped components and replaced components; until now, the global output of photovoltaic modules has exceeded 3 / 4. Zhou Gang, general manager of solar energy Division of Beijing heng Certification Center, told reporters: " The industry will usher in the first wave of photovoltaic module decommissioning tide in 2025, the scale is expected to exceed 120,000 tons, it is urgent to pay attention to the recycling work."In Wang's view, the recycling business is not just for environmental factors."Abandoned photovoltaic modules still contain valuable components, such as 70% glass, 18% aluminum, and 4% semiconductor materials, which are widely used in other cutting-edge technologies. Recycling can not only reduce the impact of ecological environment, but also reduce the energy consumption of resource extraction and reduce the exploitation of original resources. In addition, from the current recycling process of waste photovoltaic module recycling in Europe, the whole operation and management process includes collection, registration, transportation, recycling and recycling, which requires a large number of personnel participation, and will produce a large number of employment opportunities.”
"Income-driven component recycling will inevitably cause problems"
understanding, action needs to keep up. However, on the "last kilometer" road, many jams need to be broken through. The first is the application of technology. Wang Dongrong admitted that the current three mainstream recycling and disposal methods have difficult to overcome the shortcomings, technical improvement is imminent."Heat treatment methods can make the components completely turned into ashes, but the process emits harmful gases and easily causes new pollution if not handled properly. The chemical solvent method realizes the complete separation of panels, and the resulting disposal of organic waste solution is a new problem. In addition, there are physical and mechanical methods, not fully separated from the components, resulting in a waste of resources."
The second is the gradually exposed chaos."Some abandoned components of the power station are piled up at will, which is against the relevant provisions of the Solid Waste Law. Due to the poor processing channel, process and other reasons, it is difficult for the waste production units to deliver them to the processing unit. The latter is eager to get the waste components but lacks access, and urgently needs to get through the intermediate link. In addition, some manufacturers submit the components to the general solid waste treatment units, and they do not manage the follow-up process and the actual results, causing disorderly disposal and other problems. How to guide the waste components into the compliance channels is also the key."Zhu Jie, general manager of Nantong Riyi New Environmental Protection Technology Co., LTD., for example.
"Some small workshops have no follow-up environmental costs, and in turn pay to the component companies for recycling. Some incompetent enterprises simply landfill and incineration disposal, not solve environmental problems, but bring more pollution impact."Gao Ronggang, deputy general manager of China Energy Saving Solar Energy Technology (Zhenjiang) Co., LTD., believes that the mixed downstream processing enterprises have exposed the lack of access threshold, the lack of control and supervision mechanism and other practical problems."At present, the industry has no special policy specifically for the recycling and treatment of waste photovoltaic modules.”
Zhou Gang has also noticed the chaos of the current recycling link."No effective recycling system has yet, and recycling standards are also being prepared. Lack of corresponding policy constraints, only rely on income to drive the recycling of components will inevitably cause problems, and even cause the competitive pattern of bad money driving out good money."
