The importance of efficient collection system: Survey on the current situation of End-of-Life management of photovoltaic panels

Abstract

An enormous amount of photovoltaic panels (PV panels), which have been introduced rapidly since the beginning of 2010s, will become End-of-Life (EoL) in 2030s and considered to cause large damage on the waste management system in Japan. We conducted surveys to understand the obstacles to the environmentally-sound management of EoL PV panels, especially their reuse and recycling, and the potential solutions. Material separation companies have pointed out that the efficient collection and transportation of EoL PV panels is crucial for encouraging both reuse and recycling. The efficient collection and transportation may be enabled by accumulating data regarding disposers of EoL PV panels through digital services. In order to propagate such digital services, according to our questionnaire survey to households that installed PV panels at home, the cost for collection and management of the EoL PV panels as well as trust to the service providers were found to be the key factors.