Will solar PV waste be a significant environmental issue in 2050?

Considering an average panel lifetime of 25 years, the worldwide solar PV waste is anticipated to reach between 4%-14% of total generation capacity by 2030 and rise to over 80% (around 78 million tonnes) by 2050. Therefore, the disposal of PV panels will become a pertinent environmental issue in the next decades.

How can photovoltaic technology reduce waste?

Generations of photovoltaic technologies, namely crystalline silicon, thin-film, and third-generation solar panels, share the goal of achieving waste reduction through useful strategies for recovery of secondary raw materials from obsolete panels.

How to deal with solar PV waste material?

Therefore, the methods of dealing with solar PV waste material, principally by recycling need to be established by 2040. By recycling solar PV panels EOL and reusing them to make new solar panels, the actual number of waste (i.e., not recycled panels) could be considerably reduced.

What is dual-use photovoltaic (PV)?

Dual-use photovoltaic (PV) technologies, also known as dual-use PV, are a type of PV application where the PV panels serve an additional function besides the generation of electricity.

Are photovoltaic solar modules a waste management challenge?

The increasing deployment of photovoltaic modules poses the challenge of waste management. Heath et al. review the status of end-of of-life management of silicon solar modules and recommend research and development priorities to facilitate material recovery and recycling of solar modules.

Is solar PV technology a good choice for future energy needs?

Therefore, PV technology has a very exciting prospect as a way of fulfilling the world's future energy needs. During the past several decades, the utilization of solar PV power has increased. There is now a large market for PV panels which have the potential to globally produce clean energy.