Problematic waste of the future may be sitting on your roof – Could you get a cash reward for recycling in the future?

Bhadla Solar Park is a breathtakingly large solar park located in the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, India. It is the size of more than a thousand football stadiums, or approximately 56 square kilometers.

The park has been hailed as a showcase for India’s goal of producing 450 gigawatts of renewable energy per year by 2030, and is said to house ten million solar panels.

There is plenty of sun in India, and switching from coal to solar power is more environmentally friendly. But millions of solar panels don’t last forever, disposing of them creates huge amounts of waste.

Although currently the average lifespan of solar panels is around 20-25 years and the waste problem seems distant, it is likely that India and other Asian countries will face a solar waste problem by the end of this decade.

Globally, solar panels are becoming a huge recycling problem, the true extent of which is still a matter of guesswork.

According to the BBC’s estimates, there may be more than 2.5 billion solar panels on Earth, if both rooftop panels and solar panel farms are counted.

Metals are threatening to run out

The panels don’t last forever, as over time they lose their power. A large part of the panels installed in the world have not yet reached the end of their life cycle.

The International Renewable Energy Agency ie IRENAthe amount of solar waste may rise to 78 million tons by 2050.

The panels contain various metals and plastic parts, which should be recycled carefully.

Many countries do not have a solar energy waste management policy despite ambitious solar power installation targets.

For example, in the United States, it is estimated that only about a tenth of the solar waste is recycled, says MIT Technology Review.

Solar waste, i.e. electronic waste generated from decommissioned solar panels, is often sold as scrap, because the panels’ low metal content makes them challenging to recycle.

Various metals such as tellurium, silver, quartz and smaller, but still significant amounts of indium, zinc, tin and gallium are needed to manufacture panel technology.

Although less than five percent of the world’s electricity production is currently produced with solar electricity, the availability of the metals needed for them may be difficult in the future. About 20 grams of silver are needed for one panel. It has been estimated that, for example, there is not enough silver to make millions of solar panels.

The need for a recycling plant in Finland

It is often cheaper to crush the panel and throw it away.

In Finland, the recycling of panels does not yet take place on a large scale, but there will be a need for a recycling plant in about 15 years, estimates the Suomen Aurinkoenergiayhdistys.

Fingrid’s according to 2022, about 0.6 percent of the electricity consumed in Finland was produced by solar power, but this is believed to increase tenfold by 2030.

Although the European Union has regulations on solar waste recycling, the practice is still weak and only a vanishingly small amount of the panels themselves are recycled.

The use of solar panels will increase around the world, both in industrial use and in households. There are various recycling options available, such as a deposit system, where the recycling of an old panel is rewarded with money.