Integrating sociotechnical factors to assess efficacy of PV recycling and reuse interventions

Walzberg, Julien; Carpenter, Alberta; Heath, Garvin

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-151153/v1

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 56 publications

(104 reference statements)

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“…Additionally, it is expected that the amount of silver used, which was approximately 10 µg per cell in 2021, will be reduced by almost half by 2032 [37]. Therefore, the most desirable method of recycling a PV module is to recover the performance of the module at the end of its commercial life and use it again [38][39][40]. In particular, a technology to normalize the system by recovering defects in PV modules with severe power degradation in PV power plants, currently operating under the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) subsidy system, is essential.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simplified Recovery Process for Resistive Solder Bond (RSB) Hotspots Caused by Poor Soldering of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Modules Using Resin

Lee

Cho

et al. 2022

Energies

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When the thickness of the solar cell wafer and the amount of Ag to be used decreases, it is the best method to recover the power of the module after use at a minimum cost and reuse the module itself. Economic recovery technology can be applied to the power degradation, caused by the resistive solder bond (RSB) hotspot by poor soldering, because the recovery process can be simplified compared to the power loss that is often greater than 30%. This study demonstrated a quick recovery of the RSB hotspot with on-site recovery technology applied with resin and verified the performance and long-term reliability of on-site recovery technology, compared to the factory recovery method, where the back sheet is removed and laminated to recover the module. Both the factory and field recovery methods confirmed recovery results closer to the initial rated power output of the samples. Each sample was degraded by the RSB hotspot to ~62–65% of the initial power output, and the recovery process successfully recovered it to ~96–99%. In on-site recovery, verification of the possible EVA solvothermal swelling, which is the effect of organic solvents contained in the resin on EVA, is essential for verifying the long-term reliability of the recovered module. In this study, the power degradations of the on-site recovered samples after a TC 200 cycle test are −2.14% and −0.95%, respectively, which are within the certification test standard of the new manufacturing module. Existing factory recovery costs not only in the recovery process, but also in a total of 22 stages, such as the transfer of the target module. The largest advantage is that the on-site recovery process can be restarted in the field after only eight stages.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simplified Recovery Process for Resistive Solder Bond (RSB) Hotspots Caused by Poor Soldering of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Modules Using Resin

Lee

Cho

et al. 2022

Energies

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“…The large-scale installation of photovoltaic modules results in the problems of economic use of resources during production and processing of waste modules after use [19,20]. By 2050, 80 million tons of accumulated photovoltaic modules are expected to reach their service life worldwide, with 10 million tons in the US alone [21]. With the rapid increase in the installation of photovoltaic modules in countries such as China, the collection and recycling of end-of-life photovoltaic modules is becoming an important task, and various methods of building efficient recycling systems are being investigated [22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prediction of Power Output from a Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Module with Repaired Cell-in-Hotspots

Lee

Cho

et al. 2022

Electronics

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Recycling of problematic photovoltaic modules as raw materials requires considerable energy. The technology to restore cells in hotspot modules at a relatively low cost is more economical than replacing them with new modules. Moreover, a technology that restores power by replacing a cell-in-hotspot of a photovoltaic module with a new cell rather than replacing the whole module is useful for operating power plants. In particular, power plants that receive government subsidies have to use certified modules of specific models; the modules cannot be replaced with other modules. Before putting resources into module restoration, predicting the power of a module to be restored by replacing a cracked cell with a new cell is essential. Therefore, in this study, the module output amount after restoration was calculated using the previously proposed relative power loss analysis method and the recently proposed cell-to-module factor analysis method. In addition, the long-term degradation coefficient of the initial cell and the loss due to the electrical mismatch between the initial and new cell were considered. The output of the initial cell was estimated by inversely calculating the cell-to-module factor. The differences between the power prediction value and the actual experimental result were 1.12% and 3.20% for samples 190 A and 190 B, respectively. When the initial rating power and tolerance of the module were corrected, the differences decreased to 0.10% and 2.01%, respectively. The positive mismatch, which restores cells with a higher power, has no loss due to the reverse current; thus, the efficiency of the modules is proportional to the average efficiency of each cell. In this experiment, the electrical mismatches were only 0.37% and 0.34%. This study confirmed that even if a replacement cell has a higher power (<20%) than the existing cell, the power loss is not significantly affected, and heat generation of the existing normal cell is not observed. Hence, it was concluded that when some cells are damaged in a crystalline solar cell, the module could be restored by replacing only those cells instead of disposing of the entire module. However, for commercialization of the proposed method, a long-term reliability test of the module repaired using this method must be performed to confirm the results. Following this, recycling cells instead of recycling modules will be an economical and eco-friendly alternative.

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Integrating sociotechnical factors to assess efficacy of PV recycling and reuse interventions

Cited by 2 publications

References 56 publications

Simplified Recovery Process for Resistive Solder Bond (RSB) Hotspots Caused by Poor Soldering of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Modules Using Resin

Simplified Recovery Process for Resistive Solder Bond (RSB) Hotspots Caused by Poor Soldering of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Modules Using Resin

Prediction of Power Output from a Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Module with Repaired Cell-in-Hotspots

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