Abstract
Energy demand continues to grow with the world’s burgeoning population. Meeting energy needs through renewable sources allows for market growth with limited environmental impact, but sourcing constraints can limit production, creating industrial and environmental problems. The exploitation of end-of-use and end-of-life photovoltaic (PV) options that are traditionally treated as waste offers a valuable opportunity to support renewable energy market growth with fewer sourcing constraints and minimal environmental impacts, but this circular investment has not yet been broadly implemented, nor is broad guidance widely available to aid its implementation. From a business perspective, this paper discusses the technical issues, assesses the anticipated market growth issues, and proposes a combination of circular economy, industrial ecology, and process integration principles to contribute a theoretically supported, practical framework to improve the management of end-of-use/life PV products and support renewable energy market growth.
Highlights
Two economists, Malthus and Solow, presented conflicting perspectives on how to balance industrial progress with planetary limitations
While the optimal positioning likely lies between the two extremes, all manufacturers and supply chain partners face substantial environmental and economic issues resulting from the natural tension between material supply and market growth
These issues can be diminished with the appropriate exploitation, management, and integration of end-of-use and end-of-life products and processes, but the cost effectiveness and financial impact of different end-of-use strategies remains unclear; producers often find themselves making critical decisions based on subjective factors
Summary
Malthus and Solow, presented conflicting perspectives on how to balance industrial progress with planetary limitations. While the optimal positioning likely lies between the two extremes, all manufacturers and supply chain partners face substantial environmental and economic issues resulting from the natural tension between material supply and market growth These issues can be diminished with the appropriate exploitation, management, and integration of end-of-use and end-of-life products and processes, but the cost effectiveness and financial impact of different end-of-use strategies remains unclear; producers often find themselves making critical decisions based on subjective factors. Given the anticipated renewable energy market growth, and steady price declines from the improvement of economies of scale and targeted industry support in select countries, many material constraints are expected to continue through to at least 2050 [9] This scenario provides a unique opportunity to develop alternate sourcing options through the circular integration of end-of-use/life products in the PV supply chain.
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