(The Conversation) – What do silver, silicon and gallium have in common? These expensive raw materials are essential components of our various solar energy technologies. What about neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium? These rare earth metals are used to build the powerful magnets in wind turbines.

Keeping our planet liveable requires accelerated clean energy transitions by governments — global carbon emissions must halve by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2050.

But a more ambitious clean energy transition requires more of the metals and minerals used to build clean energy technologies. As the global energy sector shifts from fossil fuels to clean energy, the demand of precious metals — known as critical minerals — is increasing.

A striking example is lithium, a metal used in electric vehicle batteries. Between 2018 and 2022, the demand for lithium increased by 25 per cent per year. Under a net-zero scenario, lithium demand by 2040 could be over 40 times what it was in 2020.

Supply and demand

The current challenge lies in a supply and demand mismatch. The projected demand for critical minerals exceeds the available supply. Basic principles of economics dictate higher prices for these minerals.

In addition, critical minerals have a geographically concentrated supply. These metals are only extracted from a handful of countries and are overwhelmingly processed in China.

China, for example, extracts 60 per cent and processes 90 per cent of all rare earth elements. In comparison, the top oil-producing country — the United States — accounts for only 18 per cent of the extraction and 20 per cent of the processing of the whole industry.

The geographical concentration may result in additional supply constraints. Indonesia, the world’s first nickel producer, has progressively banned the export of nickel ore overseas in an attempt to strengthen domestic processing.

The lack of geographical diversity in supply can increase price volatility. Lithium prices rose more than 400 per cent in 2022, before dropping again by 65 per cent in 2023. Copper prices soared in Peru following social unrest and mine blockades.

China, which controls 98 per cent of the gallium supply, created a 40 per cent spike in 2023 on gallium prices by setting severe restriction on exports due to “national security reasons.”

If supply constraints continue, the prices of critical minerals could become too high. Installing clean energy could become too expensive, and governments may find it hard to reach their clean energy targets.

The demand and supply balance must be restored by one of two ways: either by decreasing the demand for critical materials or increasing their supply.

Restoring balance

The most obvious way to restore the balance between supply and demand — more mining — is tricky. Mining is environmentally destructive and damages ecosystems and communities. Plans for opening new mines in France, Serbia and Portugal have seen massive social opposition, leaving their future uncertain.

Opening a new mine can take more than 15 years on average, so projects started today might arrive too late. While some capacity can be built quicker by reopening old mines, and some projects are already underway, supply imbalances are expected to be inevitable by 2030.

Beyond mining, two alternative practical approaches exist. The first is to reduce the demand for critical minerals by clean energy technologies. With innovation and research and development, clean energy products can be redesigned to use less material in each generation.

The silver content in solar cells dropped by 80 per cent in one decade. Likewise, the cathodes in new electric vehicle batteries contain up to six times less cobalt than older models.

The second alternative is to increase the supply of critical minerals by recovering them from older and used clean technology products via advanced recycling. Decommissioned solar panels might no longer produce energy but can be a valuable source of silver or silicon.

Our past research has shown that discarded solar panels could outweigh new installations by the next decade as installers seek to replace older panels with newer, more efficient ones.

By recovering critical minerals from this waste in a process known as urban mining, we could cover the demand for the materials needed for future energy installations.

Recycling is the way forward

Our recent research with our colleague Luk Van Wassenhove compares the economic consequences of these two alternative approaches. If the scarcity of critical minerals is not extreme, reducing the critical material content of clean energy products would be the way to go.

However, unintended consequences can be expected akin to the rebound effect or Jevon’s paradox: by improving the efficiency of usage of critical minerals, producers can end up consuming more of it.

As clean energy products use less critical material, their improved profitability could increase production even more. As a result, decreasing the material usage per product won’t necessarily lead to a decrease in critical material demand overall.

In contrast, our research suggests that recycling decommissioned products is not subject to such a rebound effect. A steady stream of recycled materials from end-of-life products protects producers from volatile commodity prices and better facilitates the critical energy transition.

Setting up a recycling ecosystem requires greater effort than marginally changing a product’s design. Firms need a cost-efficient reverse logistics system, recycling plants and infrastructure to get enough end-of-use products back and to process them. Sizeable initial capital investments will take time to recover and require firms and policymakers to adopt a long-term mindset.

But there’s room for optimism. The start-up ROSI Solar opened its first recycling plant in 2023, making France a pioneer in recovering high-purity silicon, silver and copper from end-of-use solar panels.

Likewise, the U.S.-based SOLARCYCLE can recycle 95 per cent of valuable materials in solar panels. Many electric vehicle makers, like Tesla, Renault and Nissan, have started projects to recycle batteries and ensure a riskless cobalt, nickel and lithium supply. Recycling may indeed be the path to affordable clean energy.

Serasu Duran, Assistant Professor, Operations and Supply Chain Management at Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary; Atalay Atasu, Professor of Technology and Operations Management, INSEAD, and Clara Carrera, PhD Candidate in Technology and Operations Management, INSEAD

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

( Cronkite News ) – YUMA – Tucked between warehouses near the airport, We Recycle Solar is repurposing, reusing and recycling the growing supply of panels that have passed their expected lifespan of 30 years.

Through multiple processes, the company refurbishes salvageable solar photovoltaic panels and breaks down worn-out panels into aluminum, granular glass and other materials that can be reused.

Waste is a growing problem around the world as solar power becomes more affordable and the need to reduce fossil fuel usage is more acute on a warming planet.

But solar recycling in 2022 isn’t cost effective, and not all materials used in solar panels can be extracted – problems the industry and researchers at Arizona State are working on.

In a joint report, the International Renewable Energy Agency and the International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme predicted the United States will create up to 10 million tons of solar-panel waste by 2050. That’s the weight of more than 45,000 jumbo jets.

A series of jars contain samples of recycled solar panel materials at We Recycle Solar in Yuma on Feb. 9, 2022. (Photo by Hope O’Brien/Cronkite News)

In addition, some of that waste – lead in particular – is toxic and can cause serious health problems. Lead and other materials, including copper and silver, remain difficult to remove from recycled composite materials.

Of the 50 states, the U.S. Energy Information Administration ranks Arizona fourth in net generation from solar but second in solar energy potential.

Dwight Clark, director of compliance and recycling technology at We Recycle Solar, said the company hopes to put Arizona at the forefront of recycling by being one of few companies focused primarily on solar waste.

“I don’t believe that there is anyone else purpose-built to do solar recycling,” Clark said. “When we get done, we will be purpose-built to do five full truckloads a day on one shift.”

What does a solar panel become after it’s recycled?

For now, the three-year-old company is recycling manually, waiting on equipment to scale up. It’s scheduled to arrive in mid-July, after a 24-week delay.

Dismantling a solar panel isn’t glamorous, but the repurposing brings to light the variety of materials needed to make solar power possible.

A typical day recycling solar panels consists of sawing, breaking aluminum frames down, stacking and lifting, said Tracey Fenzel, a team leader at We Recycle Solar.

When a solar panel enters the warehouse, workers determine whether it can be refurbished or recycled. The wiring is removed from salvageable panels, and the glass and solar cells are separated from the aluminum frame.

The remnants of the frameless panel are crushed and filtered. By the end of the process, the recycled panel becomes granular glass, plastics, adhesives, small pieces of silicon and bits of wiring and other debris to be processed and reused.

“We take a solar panel and basically reduce it to its commodity parts,” Clark said.

Clark said We Recycle Solar started in 2019 as an end-of-life option for photovoltaic panels to keep them out of landfills.

“We make it the goal to avoid the landfill for at least 95% of what comes through the door,” he said.

But solar recycling is evolving as reclamation processes still are being perfected. And at the moment, solar panel recycling isn’t economically viable.

Clark said the materials recovered from one recycled solar panel yield only $2 to $7. We Recycle Solar charges up to $20 per panel for recycling.

“Because there is a cost to getting rid of it, I’ve seen thousands (of solar panels) just get rolled into landfills,” Clark said.

Creating a sustainable option for decommissioned solar panels has had challenges, he said. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed delivery of the equipment needed to process a high volume of solar panels.

Once the facility is functional, Clark said, it will have the capacity to recycle nearly 2,500 panels a day, compared with the 600 it can recycle manually.

The future of solar recycling

<

Clark said photovoltaic panels contain materials that are hard to remove and can be harmful to the environment if tossed in the trash.

“You could be putting lead or other things in the landfill,” he said.

We Recycle Solar focuses on recycling panels to aluminum and glass, but it also has been working to strip traces of copper, silver and other metals away from the glass and plastics through chemical reduction. They’re still trying to perfect the process, however.

At Arizona State University’s School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, a team led by Professor Meng Tao is researching ways to recover lead and every other material from old photovoltaic panels.

“The goal of this project is to eventually help our society solve a problem,” Tao said, and to make solar recycling more cost-effective.

“The end goal is that we can build a pilot plant and practice on a commercial scale,” he said.

Natalie Click, a Ph.D. candidate at ASU and research assistant who’s working with Tao and studying material science and engineering, is focused on increasing recovery rates for lead, an extremely toxic metal, in its metallic form so it can be reused as solder and other products.

“We want to be able to say that we can make sure that all of these precious materials in the solar panel aren’t just going into the environment, that the lead isn’t going to contaminate your groundwater, that we can collect it and put it back into new solar panels,” Click said.

Cronkite News reporters Payton Major and Autriya Maneshni contributed to this story.

News Visual Journalist, Phoenix, Hope O’Brien expects to graduate in May 2022 with a master’s degree in mass communication. O’Brien, who has written for the Downtown Devil and interned with Destination I Do, is working for the Phoenix news bureau.

News Broadcast Reporter, Phoenix, Payton Major expects to graduate in May 2023 with bachelor’s degrees in broadcast journalism and meteorology. Major, who works at WeatherRate and has interned with MadridMedia, is working in the Phoenix news bureau.

News Broadcast Reporter, Phoenix, Autriya Maneshni expects to graduate in May 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in psychology. Maneshni, who has interned with KJZZ and is music director for Blaze Radio, is working for the Phoenix news bureau.