In recent years, technological development has cast solar power into a much more favourable light, and the solar PV system has become one of the most cost-efficient renewable energy sources. But since solar technology becomes more robust, older models of solar panels might run into the risk of becoming obsolete or otherwise damaged by weather and time.
So the main question is, what happens when solar panels reach their end of life? Are they recyclable? The simple answer is yes. We will look more into it in this article.
Are solar panels recyclable?
As we said earlier, solar panels are recyclable. Solar PV system and panels typically are made of a mixture of glass, aluminium, and plastic. Even though aluminium and glass are highly recyclable, plastic is not frequently recycled and less valuable.
That said, the problem here lies with the segregation of the mixed materials. The procedure of extracting each of these materials is a bit tedious. This extraction also requires advanced machinery and special expertise.
What is the procedure of solar panel recycling?
The following procedure shows how a silicon solar module is recycled:
Step 1: The aluminium frame is removed from the panel and is considered 100% reusable
Step 2: The glass is separated when it goes along a conveyor belt. 95% of this piece of glass is considered reusable.
Step 3: The recycled panel goes through thermal processing, which brings the frame up to 932° Fahrenheit. This portion of the procedure permits the evaporation of small plastic components not yet stripped from the panel. This also allows the cells to be segregated more easily.
Step 4: the silicon wafers are etched away before being smelted into reusable slabs. The silicon on these slabs is considered to be 85% reusable.
The following procedure shows how a thin-film based solar module is recycled:
Step 1: Put them in a shredder. Then, a hammermill ensures that all particles are no larger than 4-5mm, which is the size where the lamination keeps the inner materials together, breaks and can be removed.
Step 2: A rotating screw separates the remaining substance consisting of both solar and liquid material.
Step 3: the resulting substance goes through metal processing to completely separate the different semiconductor materials. On average, 95% of the semiconductor material is reusable.
Step 4: At last, the material goes through rinsing. What remains is pure glass, saving 90% of glass elements for easy re-manufacturing.
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A significantly huge number of Australian households and businesses are switching to renewable energy sources like solar, even as you read this.
Let’s find out why, exactly–1.
Increased savingsOne of the primary reasons solar energy is gaining popularity is that it helps save money.
Renewable Energy Target & other incentives/subsidiesAn initiative of the Australian government, the Renewable Energy Target, helps reduce the cost of each watt of installed capacity by 60-70 cents (for systems under 100kW).
To put this into perspective, a 5kW solar system in Brisbane would warrant an incentive of roughly $3,000.
Moreover, the cost benefits only get better over the system's lifespan (25 years, on average).
Choose the right system When choosing to install solar power – also called a solar photovoltaic (PV) system – it's important to consider what size will suit your needs.
For example, do you want to go carbon neutral, or do you want to add battery storage?
You should speak to your electricity retailer and installer because installing solar power might impact your current electricity tariff.
Some energy retailers require solar customers to shift to time-of-use tariff.In many cases it will be possible to install a PV system that generates as much, or more, electricity as you use in a year Solar Panels in Melbourne
If you are interested with the clean energy and want to contribute to reducing global carbon footprint, it is important to invest in solar panels.
Residential solar panel installation is the best way in order to reduce the dependability on the conventional energy sources.
According to experts, if each and every household will install solar panels on their roof and harness energy from the sun, it will be easier for them to minimize the use of the energy from the conventional source.
In this way, it will be a great contribution to reducing the global carbon footprint from an individual basis.Having a number of things as the solar panel installation, it would be the right way to come with perfect accumulation in order to get them on basic things that are certainly making something crucial with the help of the right kind of solar panels.
It is true that you have to install multiple solar panels to meet your energy needs and this is the same thing that will make something more crucial to save a lot of money in terms of energy bills.
Therefore, people around the world are getting more and more aware about the solar panel and its installation process.Residential solar PV systems are sometimes proven as one of the most popular sources of energy that will harness more and more energy from the sun.
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