Electrothermal Heating Process Applied to c-Si PV Recycling

The majority of solar modules installed worldwide are based on crystalline silicon (c-Si) technology for their higher efficiency in comparison with competing technologies and manufacturing cost that is decreasing over time. Due to the long life of photovoltaic (PV) installations, decommissioning and recycling of PV has not been yet a big issue, but working on the development of a sustainable and scalable recycling system is important for recovery valuable raw materials and reduce the amount of waste produced by this energy production system. Although the drop of the raw silicon cost posed some questions on the profitability of recycling, the PV community needs to work hard on this topic for developing more efficient and environmental friendly recycling systems. For recycling glass and silicon of end-of-life solar modules, it is necessary to separate them from the plastic materials used for laminating the panel. De-lamination of solar modules can be done with a thermal treatment that modifies the physical characteristics of these materials, allowing the removal of them from the panel. An electrothermal heating process for easily remove glass from c-Si solar modules has been developed at Padua University and is presented in this paper.