The longevity of these panels, the way they’re put together and how they make them make it inherently difficult to, to use a term, de-manufacture.
Robards said nearly 75 percent of the material that gets separated out is glass, which is easy to recycle into new products but also has a very low resale value. Not only that, but what’s available to recycle is something of a moving target. As solar panel technology improves, manufacturers are slowly finding ways around using components that would have value to recyclers, such as copper and silver.
Training and cost
As the time passes, our technology cost is coming down, but at the same time, the volume of the scrap increases.
The company’s long-term goal, Raju said, is to make sure the process is cheap and efficient enough to deal with the expected surge of decommissioned panels.
