For now, although, photo voltaic recyclers face vital financial, technological, and regulatory challenges. Part of the issue, says NREL’s Curtis, is a scarcity of knowledge on panel recycling charges, which hinders potential coverage responses that may present extra incentives for solar-farm operators to recycle end-of-life panels quite than dump them.

Another downside is that the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure—an EPA-approved methodology used to find out whether or not a product or materials comprises hazardous components that might leach into the surroundings—is thought to be defective. Consequently, some photo voltaic farm house owners find yourself “over-managing” their panels as hazardous with out making a proper hazardous-waste willpower, Curtis mentioned. They find yourself paying extra to eliminate them in landfills permitted to deal with hazardous waste or to recycle them.

The International Energy Agency assessed whether or not photo voltaic panels that include lead, cadmium, and selenium would affect human well being if dumped in both hazardous-waste or municipal landfills and decided the chance was low. Still, the company mentioned in a 2020 report, its findings didn’t represent an endorsement of landfilling: Recycling, it acknowledged, would “further mitigate” environmental issues.

NREL is presently finding out another course of for figuring out whether or not or not panels are hazardous. “We need to figure that out because it is definitely impacting the liability and the cost to make recycling more competitive,” Curtis mentioned.

Despite these uncertainties, 4 states not too long ago enacted legal guidelines addressing PV module recycling. California, which has essentially the most photo voltaic installations, permits panels to be dumped in landfills, however solely after they’ve been verified as non-hazardous by a chosen laboratory, which might price upwards of $1,500. As of July 2022, California had just one recycling plant that accepted photo voltaic panels.

In Washington state, a regulation designed to supply an environmentally sound solution to recycle PV panels is because of be carried out in July of 2025; New Jersey officers anticipate to subject a report on managing PV waste this spring, and North Carolina has directed state environmental officers to review the decommissioning of utility scale photo voltaic initiatives. (North Carolina presently requires photo voltaic panels to be disposed of as hazardous waste in the event that they include heavy metals like silver or—within the case of older panels—hexavalent chromium, lead, cadmium, and arsenic.)

In the European Union, end-of-life photovoltaic panels have, since 2012, been handled as digital waste underneath the EU’s waste electrical and digital tools directive, generally known as WEEE. The directive requires all member states to adjust to minimal requirements, however the precise charge of e-waste recycling varies from nation to nation, mentioned Marius Mordal Bakke, senior analyst for photo voltaic provider analysis at Rystad Energy, a analysis agency headquartered in Oslo, Norway. Despite this regulation, the EU’s PV recycling charge is not any higher than the US charge—round 10 p.c—largely due to the issue of extracting precious supplies from panels, Bakke mentioned.

But he predicted that recycling will develop into extra prevalent when the variety of end-of-life panels rises to the purpose the place it presents a enterprise alternative, offering recyclers with precious supplies they will promote. Governments might help pace that transition, he added, by banning the disposal of PV panels in landfills and offering incentives reminiscent of tax breaks to anybody who makes use of photo voltaic panels.

“At some point in the future, you are going to see enough panels being decommissioned that you kind of have to start recycling,” Bakke mentioned. “It will become profitable by itself regardless of commodity prices.”