Category: Solar

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Solar panel disposal problem surges as solar energy use grows

Solar energy panels can be recycled, but most end up in landfills. How to handle broken or older panels in Illinois is a challenge that takes a statewide collaboration to figure out, according to Jennifer Martin, coordinator of the Solar Module Recycling Initiative at the University of Illinois’ Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC).

Solar modules used at solar energy farms and in homes are made from different technologies, all with valuable, recoverable, recyclable materials. No national regulations exist on how to discard panels, but some may contain toxic compounds such as arsenic, cadmium, and lead that can leach into the environment if landfilled.

In addition, the large size of solar panels can potentially fill up landfill sites quickly.

Given that solar power is the fastest growing energy source nationwide, and with a lifespan of 25 to 30 years, solar panels installed in the 2000s and before will soon need to be replaced. Also, panels that are broken in shipping or damaged by storms will be disposed of.

With around 360,000 modules currently installed in Illinois, an additional 6 million solar panels will be installed in Illinois by 2025, posing a significant solid waste problem by mid-century.

“Solar energy is a relatively new industry in the Midwest,” Martin said. “There are many factors that make it difficult to predict the number of solar modules that will come offline in Illinois. However, this looming threat is an opportunity to figure out how to prepare now for recycling and reuse options before a plan is urgently needed.”

Through the ISTC initiative, Martin is working with stakeholders in various national and state organizations to find solutions to the solid waste disposal of solar modules. Organizations include the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and others. To date, less than 1 percent of decommissioned solar modules are being recycled, according to SEIA.

The collaborators are working to determine the best options for states to prepare for end-of-life solar recycling and reuse. Predicting the amount of waste headed for the landfills is important, as well as finding locations to recycle the waste.

Some of the specific challenges with developing a recycling plan is the lack of publicly available information on recycling and recovery costs and the basic infrastructure necessary to collect and transport the modules to recycling centers once they become obsolete.

Modules that have declined to about 70 percent effectiveness can still have a useful life and be reused for schools, nonprofit agencies, and other users.

Washington State was the first to pass a solar stewardship bill requiring manufacturers selling solar modules to have an end-of-life recycling program for their products. Through this program, regional take-back locations accept panels with no cost to solar panel system owners.

New Jersey’s recently established Solar Panel Recycling Commission has been tasked to investigate options on recycling and other end-of-life management recommendations for the state.

In Illinois, collaborators hope to have a system in place before millions of panels are ready for disposal in the near future.

“The Midwest is a little behind other regions in the U.S. on adopting solar energy,” Martin said. “With this and other initiatives, the Midwest is forging ahead on finding solutions to a problem that will only become more pressing with time.”

Visit the ISTC website to learn more about the initiative and solar energy disposal in Illinois.

Media contacts

  • Jennifer Martin, Environmental Program Development Specialist, 217-300-3593; jm33@illinois.edu
  • Tricia Barker, Associate Director for Strategic Communications, 217-300-2327, tlbarker@illinois.edu
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Illinois EPA’s Office of Energy awards grant to Southern Illinois University-Carbondale for innovative engineering project

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Director John J. Kim has announced that the Agency’s Office of Energy has issued a $900,000 grant award to SIU Carbondale for a unique solar photovoltaic plus energy storage and communication resiliency project.

The SIU Solar + Storage project will feature more than 150kW of solar generation and 310kWh of storage capacity in a highly-visible section of campus at the SIU College of Engineering.

As proposed, this project will:

  • reduce SIU’s demand on the grid;
  • serve as an important educational tool
    to the College of Engineering; and
  • add resilience to the electricity and communications infrastructure of
    SIU and the surrounding Carbondale community.

The SIU Solar + Storage project is the first investment of its kind by Illinois EPA’s Office of Energy and designed to be replicated and applied to other contexts and potential future investments across Illinois in and out of the higher education setting.

“The SIU Solar + Storage project will provide energy savings and emergency communications resiliency for the campus and Carbondale community as well as enhance educational opportunities for the University’s College of Engineering,” said Director Kim. “Illinois EPA looks forward to watching the
project evolve as students engage with the technology from different perspectives.”

There are two other important components of the project. First, solar powered long-term evolution (LTE) communication modules will sustain cellular communication for the SIU police department, the Carbondale police department, and the Carbondale fire department in the event of power disruption.

Second, the project intends to demonstrate that photovoltaic (PV) systems with energy storage provide a viable alternative when selecting backup power sources for small-scale applications. This will be achieved by closely monitoring the operation of the battery storage backup in response to utility power disruption.

The Office of Energy is working closely with the SIU Office of Sponsored Programs, the SIU Physical Plant Engineering Services, and the College of Engineering to design an impactful project with meaningful educational opportunities for engineering and communications students.

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Illinois Solar for All Program Launches

The Illinois Solar for All Program has officially opened for business. The goal of the program is to promote new solar projects serving low-income and environmental justice communities throughout Illinois. A key part of the program involves solar developers working with job training programs to expand the renewable energy workforce by including individuals who are or were foster children or persons with a record who are transitioning.

The program was created as part of the Future Energy Jobs Act, which was passed by the Illinois legislature in December 2016 to increase solar energy jobs and renewable development projects across Illinois. Funding for the first two years of the program is  $30 million per year, which will be used to purchase Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) from new low-income solar projects.

The Illinois Power Agency is implementing the program. It has hired Chicago-based Elevate Energy as the program administrator. The Illinois Solar for All Program has a number of sub-programs for low-income and environmental justice communities, including rooftop solar, community solar projects, and solar projects for non-profits and public facilities located in and serving those communities.

As a member of the Illinois Solar for All Working Group, ISTC collaborates with statewide and national stakeholders to develop and recommend best practices that will maximize benefits to economically disadvantaged households and communities that targeted programs are intended to serve.

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ISTC seminar explores the impact of the Future Energy Jobs Act on community solar development

On January 9, ISTC brought together speakers from Illinois Environmental Council, the Coalition for Community Solar Access, and the Illinois Solar Energy Association to discuss the potential impact of the Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA) on community solar development in Illinois.

An archive of the webinar (Solar Updates for Illinois Counties, Communities, Schools, and Businesses Preparing for Solar Development), as well as slides from the presenters are available on ISTC’s web site.

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The Interesting World of Solar Panels

WRITTEN BY: John Mulunda, ISTC intern

Can you guess which energy source has had an average annual growth of 59% in the past decade? If you guessed solar energy then you’re right. Solar energy’s sustained annual growth is due to advances in module technology creating competitiveness with other energy technologies, as well as the decline in soft costs for residential and small commercial installations.   

About Solar Panels

Simply put, solar panels are devices that turn the sun’s light into electricity. Each solar panel is made up of multiple cells connected/wired together to create the necessary electrical power needed for the application. Most solar panels on the market today are made from silicon, a semiconducting material. Each cell contains a semiconductor wafer that forms an electric current that is positive on one side and negative on the other. When light energy hits the solar panel, electrons are knocked loose from the atoms in the semiconductor material. If electrical conductors are attached to the positive and negative sides, they form an electrical circuit for electricity to flow to an electrical load such as a light or computer.

Issues

With the large increase in expected solar installations in Illinois and beyond over the next several years, what happens to these panels if they are damaged or when they reach the end of their design-life? While some of them are being repurposed or recycled, many are ending up in landfills. However, landfill disposal may not be the best use of human and natural resources. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimates that by 2050, there will be 60 to 78 million cumulative metric tons of solar panel waste globally. Careful deconstruction of this waste is essential to recover component toxics (cadmium, lead) and valuable metals (silver, iridium, gallium) that otherwise would be landfilled, which prevents possible contamination of water and air systems through leaching and open burning, respectively.

In addition, recyling solar panels allows the opportunity to recover metals, such as silver, aluminum, silicon, and gallium, that would otherwise have to be extracted. In fact, it takes a lot of work to extract gallium because it is not found as a free element in nature. It exists only in trace amounts of various compounds such as zinc or aluminum ores.

Law & Policy – Planning for the Future

There is a bright side to all of this: the value of the recovered materials from solar panel recycling and reuse could be over $15 billion by 2050. Furthermore, many countries have thought about what to do with damaged and or end-of-life solar panels.Some governments have already created laws, while others are in the process of doing so. The European Union (EU) passed a law that requires all producers who sell solar panels in the EU to pay the costs of collecting and recycling panels.

In the U.S., there are no federal laws for solar panel disposal, but the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) is working to establish a national network of certified solar recyclers. Additionally, the State of Washington requires solar manufacturers that sell in Washington to finance the upfront costs of collecting and recycling the panels. The state of New York is in the process of writing a law that will allow the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to work with manufacturers to create a program to help with the collection, transportation, recycling, and disposal of used solar panels. This program would be funded by the manufacturers.

As of 2018, Illinois does not have solar panel recycling regulations. The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center is working with the Illinois EPA, Illinois Solar Energy Association, SEIA, and recycling companies to create a solar panel recycling network. On July 18, 2018, ISTC staff, Nancy Holm and Jennifer Martin, will be at a SWANA Illinois meeting presenting a joint talk about how to make the emerging solar panel market in Illinois more sustainable through recycling.