Recycling of thin-film PV modules (Case of FirstSolar Inc.)

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Recycling of thin-film PV modules (Case of FirstSolar Inc.)

The first entry to the blog is about a report I wrote with a classmate of mine Carina back in January 2018.

It was in scope of the MS43315 Recycling Engineering Materials which dealt with the technicalities of the end-of-life (EoL) phase of metals, the challenges in product complexity, implementing a product-centric approach, etc.

As part of the evaluation a study case had to be done concerning the study of the recycling potential and barriers of a complex industrial product. We chose thin-film CdTe modules due to their promising expansion in the solar market.


Our conclusion were:
  • Dedicated recycling facilities with a product-centric approach lead to higher end-of-life recycling rates (EoL RR) for complex products.
  • Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and all that such legislation entails (Design for Recycling, etc.) are good governance mechanisms to improve the RI of the products in our economy.
  • When producers participate in the end-of-life stage of their products, it becomes easier to close the supply chain, thus secondary materials can be substitutes to primary counterparts.
  • By putting recycling strategies in place, producers can increase their security of supply by utilizing secondary products when the price of the secondary material is advantageous, primary displacement can be observed.
  • First Solar should improve the logistics of its recycling operation by introducing intermediate shredding facilities to increase the transported volume of EoL products.
  • Despite being a scarce element, tellurium supply is not at risk if First Solar keeps up with the recycling program in place to guarantee a stress-free reverse logistics operation.

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