Toss, Repair, or Recycle Solar Panels? How Human Behavior Affects Fate of Old Solar Panels
By 2050, there could be 80 million metric tons globally of solar photovoltaics (PV) reaching the end of their lifetime, with 10 million metric tons in the United States alone — or the weight of 30 Empire State Buildings.
To maximize the value of solar PV materials and minimize waste, there is growing interest in sustainable end-of-life PV options and establishing a circular economy for energy materials. Most research thus far has focused on how to technically and economically recycle or reuse PV materials but does not consider how social behavior factors in. By considering consumer awareness and behavior, consumers could become a part of the solution and help accelerate the adoption of circular economy approaches.
“Consumer awareness and attitude are an important piece of the puzzle that must be considered in PV circular economy research and solutions,” said Julien Walzberg, lead author of a new article titled “Role of Social Factors in Success of Solar Photovoltaic Reuse and Recycle Programs” in Nature Energy. “A solution may be technically feasible, but if there’s no incentive for consumers to do it, it won’t work.”
For the first time, Walzberg and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) analysts applied agent-based modeling to end-of-life PV management to understand how people make decisions about recycling or reusing PV modules — marking a major shift in how we understand the potential for circular economy strategies to be successful. As discussed in a follow-on Nature Energy article, the NREL analysis shows the importance of factoring in peer influence and attitudes toward recycling to reflect the real-world situation and accelerate circular economy strategies. The authors of the accompanying article — including Professor Martin Green of University of New South Wales, recipient of the Alternative Nobel prize in 2002 and Global Energy Prize in 2018 — make a call for all future research on circular economy strategies to consider social factors like Walzberg demonstrated for the first time.
Agent-Based Modeling of PV End-of-Life Management
Agent-based modeling represents a group of customers as “agents,” or independent decision-making entities that are trained based on data to simulate decisions made on behalf of the people they represent.
NREL’s study modeled four agents: PV owners, installers, recyclers, and manufacturers. Agents choose to repair, reuse, recycle, landfill, or store an aging PV module under different scenarios, like varying recycling costs or policies.
Based on agent decisions, the model calculates PV mass avoided in landfills and costs to society like costs for manufacturers or net revenue for recyclers and installers. The model also factors in the learning effect for module recycling, or the decrease in recycling costs due to larger volumes and technology advancement.
Today’s Conditions Do Not Encourage PV Recycling
In the baseline scenario that reflects today’s conditions, 500 gigawatts of PV are assumed to be installed in the U.S. by 2050 (compared to 104 gigawatts in 2020), generating 9.1 million metric tons of PV waste. Based on the limited information publicly available today, the authors modeled average recycling cost of $28 per module, repair at $65 per module, and landfill at $1.38 per module, where used modules are modeled to be sold at 36% of new module prices.
From 2020 to 2050 in the modeled baseline conditions, approximately 80% of modules are landfilled, 1% are reused, and 10% are recycled. With today’s material recovery rate, the recycled mass totals just 0.7 million metric tons through 2050, or approximately 8%.
“With today’s technology, PV modules are difficult to separate, and the process recovers mostly low-value materials,” Walzberg said. “Because of this, there currently isn’t enough revenue from recycling to offset the high costs, and therefore very little mass is recycled. Our model shows this could lead to a major waste problem by 2050.”
Lower Recycling Costs Increase Recycling Rate
As modeled, lower recycling costs lead to more recycled PV modules. For example, a recycling cost of $18 per module ($10 less than today’s rate) could potentially increase the recycling rate by 36% in 2050.
However, even when recycling costs are still relatively high, social influence can increase the recycling rate. When PV owners know fellow PV owners who recycle and there is general positive attitude toward recycling, the rate increases. This indicates early adopters could help set the trend for others to follow.
“The bump in recycling from social influence shows that adopting a social perspective is important to fully realize and achieve higher material recovery,” Walzberg said.
Another scenario in the study explored the potential impact of a subsidy on recycling rates. Simulations showed that substantially reducing recycling costs through subsidies could encourage recycling and lead to a virtuous circle by increasing the recycled volume, helping to drive down costs for later adopters and increasing recycling volumes more.
Higher Material Recovery an Economic Win
Today’s mechanical recycling processes for PV modules typically recover lower-quality materials that are less valuable. Emerging high-recovery recycling processes recover more valuable materials like silver, copper, and silicon that can be used again.
In scenarios with the high-recovery process, recycler cumulative net income increases by $1.3 billion in 2050. Add in higher recycling rates or lower recycling costs, and the value of recycled PV modules increases further.
Reuse Could Help Establish PV Circular Economy
Reusing PV modules shows some promise as a circular economy approach. When PV modules have longer warranties, and people perceive new and used modules as having the same value, the reuse rate increases from 1% to 23% in 2050. Because the reuse pathway competes with recycling, the recycling rate decreases to below 1% in that scenario. However, the overall landfill avoidance rate still increases. Moreover, even when nearly all limitations on PV reuse are removed, the supply of reused modules can only meet one-third of growing PV demand.
“While it is possible to reuse a PV module, it doesn’t have the same power efficiency and life expectancy the second time around, so there are limitations to focusing on reuse as the main PV circular economy strategy,” Walzberg said. “Reuse and recycling strategies can be developed in concert. Understanding this interplay is important to move toward solutions that avoid landfilling while maximizing renewable energy generation.”
Learn more about NREL’s energy analysis research.
Article courtesy of NREL.
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Wisconsin’s first three EV fast charging stations using funding from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula program are now online.
The EV fast charging stations are in Ashland, Chippewa Falls, and Menominee, in western Wisconsin, which are rural areas that see a lot of visitors due to tourism and their location along key highway corridors.
As is required by the NEVI program, all three charging stations contain four ports with both CCS and J3400 connectors, and each station can deliver up to 150 kW per port.
NEVI-funded charging stations must also have 24-hour public accessibility and provide amenities like restrooms, food and beverages, and shelter, and must be sited within one travel mile of the Alternative Fuel Corridor.
The stations are located at local Kwik Trips, a Wisconsin-based gas station that serves 12 million customers weekly at more than 880 locations across six states, making the charging experience easy to find and increasing consumer trust.
“It’s great to see more states expanding the NEVI network and filling in coverage gaps for drivers and riders,” said Gabe Klein, executive director of the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. “EV charging often happens in communities. Whether it’s parents visiting their kids at college, families staying at their cabins, or people road-tripping on Interstate 94 for the holidays – expanding the network gives consumers accessible options to charge their vehicles.”
The stations are part of Kwik Trip’s Kwik Charge program, which will provide DC fast chargers to guests traveling throughout the Midwest. Kwik Trip has received $8.1 million in NEVI funds in Wisconsin to install chargers at 24 of its locations. The company is building an app using Driivz’s software so EV drivers can find Kwik Charge chargers and check charger availability and pricing.
Read more: Kwik Trip is installing DC fast chargers across the Midwest
If you live in an area that has frequent natural disaster events, and are interested in making your home more resilient to power outages, consider going solar and adding a battery storage system. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –trusted affiliate link*
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Environment
The California grid ran on 100% renewables with no blackouts or cost rises for a record 98 days
A new study published in the journal Renewable Energy uses data from the state of California to demonstrate that no blackouts occurred when wind-water-solar electricity supply exceeded 100% of demand on the state’s main grid for a record 98 of 116 days from late winter to early summer 2024 for an average (maximum) of 4.84 (10.1) hours per day.
Compared to the same period in 2023, solar output in California is up 31%, wind power is up 8%, and batteries are up a staggering 105%. Batteries supplied up to 12% of nighttime demand by storing and redistributing excess solar energy.
And here’s the kicker: California’s high electricity prices aren’t because of wind, water, and solar energy. (That issue is primarily caused by utilities recovering the cost of wildfire mitigation, transmission and distribution investments, and net energy metering.)
In fact, researchers from Stanford, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of California, Berkeley found that states with higher shares of renewable energy tend to see lower electricity prices. The takeaway – and the data backs it up – is that a large grid dominated by wind, water, and solar is not only feasible, it’s also reliable.
The researchers concluded:
Despite the rapid growth and high penetration of [wind-water-solar] WWS, the spot price of electricity during the period dropped by more than 50% compared with the same period in the previous year, and no blackouts occurred, giving confidence that the addition of more solar, wind, and batteries should not be a cause for concern.
Mark Z. Jacobson, co-author of the paper and professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the atmosphere/energy program at Stanford University, explained in an email to Electrek:
This paper shows that the main grid in the world’s fifth-largest economy was able to provide more than 100% of the electricity that it used from only four clean renewable sources: solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal, for anywhere from five minutes to over 10 hours per day for 98 out of 116 days during late winter, all of spring, and early summer, as well as for 132 days during the entire year of 2024, without its grid failing.
The growth of solar, wind, and battery storage, in particular, resulted in fossil gas use dropping 40% during the 116-day period and 25% during the entire year. In comparison with 2023, solar, wind, and battery capacities increased significantly, with batteries doubling in capacity.
The paper also shows that high electricity prices in California have nothing to do with renewables; in fact, without renewables, prices would have been higher.
In fact, 10 of the 11 US states with higher fractions of their demand powered by renewables have among the lowest US electricity prices.
Instead, in California, the spot price of electricity dropped by over 50% during the period of interest between 2023 and 2024, indicating it was easier to match demand with supply with the increase in renewables and batteries in 2024.
Read more: New CA smart grid law will help solar and fix the grid by… simply replacing wires
To limit power outages and make your home more resilient, consider going solar with a battery storage system. In order to find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and you share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –trusted affiliate link*
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Is Porsche’s new Taycan faster than a Ferrari SF90 or Yamaha R1M? In an epic new drag race, the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT flexed its power, leaving the Ferrari and Yamaha bike in the dust. Watch the video below.
Porsche Taycan Turbo GT races a Ferrari and Yamaha
Porsche unveiled the Turbo GT model after introducing the upgraded Taycan in February. The new Porsche Taycan has significant improvements, including more range and performance.
The Taycan Turbo GT is Porsche’s fastest production car yet. With up to 1,092 hp, the electric sports car, equipped with its Wiessach Package, can hit 0 to 60 mph in just 2.1 seconds.
Porsche’s GT model took the title from the Tesla Model S Plaid as the fastest electric series production car at the Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca in California earlier this year. With a lap time of 1:27:87, Porsche topped the previous record of 1:30:30 set by the Tesla Model S Plaid in 2020.
Is the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT fast enough to beat a Ferrari SF90 and Yamaha R1M? The folks at Carwow put them up against one another in a drag race to see.
The Taycan goes up against the SF90 with 769 hp from a 4.0 liter twin-turbo V8 combined with three electric motors. Meanwhile, the Yamaha RM1 is powered by a 1 liter 4 stroke engine, which is good for 200 hp.
You can see that Porsche had no problem handling the Ferrari and Yamaha in the first race. Even with the Ferrari jumping the line in the next race, the Taycan proves its might, beating both to the line. After a few more attempts, the Porsche remained undefeated.
The Taycan Turbo GT completed a quarter-mile in 9.9 seconds, compared to the Ferrari SF90’s 10.0 seconds and the Yamaha RM1’s 10.3 seconds.
With all that power, Porsche’s Taycan Turbo GT, with the Weissach package, comes with a hefty price tag, starting at $230,000. The base 2025 Porsche Taycan starts at $99,400, while the more expensive Turbo and Turbo S trims start at $173,600 and $209,000, respectively.
After finally getting its hands on one, the GT model already took down one of the kings of Carwow’s drag strip. Which vehicle will it take down next?
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