5. Environmental aspects

Several studies have analyzed the impacts of recycling processes for PV modules on the environment. There are advantages and disadvantages of the different methods, considering all the stages, from the collection of the PV modules to the end of the recycling process.

An environmental study made for the European Full Recovery End-of-Life Photovoltaic (FRELP) project showed that environmental impacts from c-Si recycling processes come from plastic incineration and some chemical and mechanical treatments (sieving, acid leaching, electrolysis, and neutralization) for the recovery of metals [65].

Additionally, before the recycled silicon from solar cells can be used again, further chemical treatment is necessary, as well as for silver and aluminum. The chemical treatments have the potential of producing environmental impacts. Besides that, it is important to note that no process can recycle 100% of recovered materials from solar modules yet [28].

Nevertheless, for the PV Cycle [25] c-Si recycling process it was shown that there is a significant decrease in Global Warming Potential impacts (up to 20% compared to the process of making cells) [66] and for CdTe modules, there is and environmental benefit from the glass and copper recycling [67].

When comparing c-Si recycling and landfill EoL scenarios it was found that the environmental impacts from the recycling process are lower than for landfill, assuming that the recycled resources go back to the PV cells and modules manufacturing. These results considered that the recycling process involving dismantling, remelting, thermal and chemical treatments [28].

It can be seen that there are opportunities and challenges related to PV recycling processes. Although it was already show that there are environmental benefits, the recycling methods still need to improve in order to achieve better recovery rates and work on the transportation issues.
