Photovoltaic waste assessment in Mexico

Abstract

Large growth in renewable energy technology is required to combat climate change. Photovoltaic (PV) is the most promising technology with the largest potential, and Mexico has one of the best locations to exploit solar resources. During 2015, the Mexican government approved 7.8GW of PV projects. This PV deployment is linked to a great generation of PV waste once the PV systems reach their end-of-life. Considering 30 years as average module lifetime, around 2045, Mexico will have 1.2 million mt of PV waste, 691 thousand mt of which are PV modules waste (31 millions PV modules). Since PV modules represent only 55% of the material contained in PV systems, this paper presents an assessment of the future PV-waste volumes in Mexico, including not only the PV modules but the balance of system (BOS). In total, near to 1 million mt of different metals will be contained in the PV-waste stream (42% Fe, 26% Al, 26% Si, 5% Cu). Fortunately, assuming the best available recycling technology, around 920 thousand mt of PV waste could be recycled. Precious and valuable metals (e.g. 271mt of silver, 10mt of gold, 17mt of gallium, 10mt of indium, 139mt of cadmium and 100mt of tellurium) can be recovered. This study analyzes the PV-waste generation under different scenarios such as: market share in PV modules technology, recycling yields for precious and critical metals, metal composition of transformers and thin film panel development.