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Solar panels have a life cycle. The billions of panels covering roofs and once-pristine landscapes and maybe even your office building will all need to be disposed of and replaced at some point. Now the Energy Department has issued an action plan for how to safely and economically handle photovoltaic materials that have worn out. For details, the Energy Department’s photovoltaics program manager, Lenny Tinker joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
Tom Temin: Mr. Tinker, good to have you on.
Lenny Tinker: Thank you very much, nice to be here.
Tom Temin: So I didn’t realize these things don’t last forever, but they don’t what happens? How do they wear out?
Lenny Tinker: Well, there’s a lot of different ways that they can actually wear out. Typically, what happens is that, you know, they’re outside sort of, they’re exposed to like the elements. And so different things can happen through thermal cycling, cracks can propagate, contacts can oxidize. But effectively, the energy output of the system starts to decrease over about 20 to 30 years is the expected lifetime.
Tom Temin: All right, and then inside these materials that actually produce the current, are these hazardous materials? Are they safe to handle? What are the issues?
Lenny Tinker: Well, there are a variety of different materials inside the modules themselves. Mostly, the modules are totally safe. But there are some materials that are used that can be actually dangerous. For example, lead can be used in the solder, like many of the electronics that we all use. And therefore it’s important that people follow EPA regulations and testing for how to deal with the materials.
Tom Temin: Got it. And is the disposal generally carried out by commercial companies locally? Suppose I have a building and there’s a lot of photovoltaics cells, they have to be removed, who does that kind of work in general?
Lenny Tinker: So that work is typically contracted out and the disposal themselves depending on the actual modules being used. So they’re these tests that are regulated by the EPA known as toxicity characteristic leaching protocols, or TCLP. So those modules would be tested, that would then determine how they had to dispose of whether or not they’d be considered hazardous waste, or it could be disposed of as just general landfill waste. And then typically, someone would contract at someone to actually take down the system and then dispose of it appropriately.
Tom Temin: All right, so what are the dangers here and tell us about the action plan, what is the Energy Department trying to do here with the action plan?
Lenny Tinker: So our goal with the action plan is to indicate for the community and to set a direction for how we could be even better than the regulations that I mentioned that are stipulated by the EPA. So we see there’s potentially a possibility to improve the way that materials are disposed of, and actually increase the recycling potential of the entire system. Now, the bulk of a PV system is steel, and aluminum and copper. And the recycling procedures for that are pretty well worked out the current industry, but the modules themselves because they’re composites and composite materials are a little more complicated, there’s some opportunity to figure out how to better recycle and recover the value of those modules. And so in our action plan, we lay out a direction for research that can be done as well as stakeholder engagement, and aggregating data. So everyone’s aware of what’s actually going on with the modules such that we can, you know, make PDS as good for the environment as possible.
Tom Temin: And of course, when you do recycling carefully, and removal and recycling, it can be expensive. And so is the economics of this part of the calculus?
Lenny Tinker:…
Read More: Energy Department issues plan to safely and affordably replace old solar panels