WEBVTT

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"We might have a teeny tiny problem

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with solar.

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And it’s not that they don’t produce

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energy at night."

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What started delivering clean energy

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in the 1950s and took off in the late 2000s

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"…is now ready for the dumpster.

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Not because the technology is trash,

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but because solar panels

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are built to last between 20 to 30 years."

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Soon we could be looking at

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27 million tons of out-of-date solar waste.

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And only a tiny fraction gets recycled.

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Around 80% of old panels are landfilled!

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"Big problem."

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One: plastics end up in the environment.

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Two: precious metals would just go to waste.

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And three: recycling saves emissions.

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So I’m here in the French Alps to find a fix.

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"And what this has to do

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with baking and bathing:

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now."

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We’re at the French company ROSI.

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Founded in 2017,

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they’re one of the pioneers in solar recycling.

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This is Antoine Chalaux,

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he has been working here

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for the past four years.

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"What are the main process steps

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in your recycling process?"

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"So, the first step is

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to get rid of the polymers.

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So, we do it with a thermal treatment.

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It's a pyrolysis process in a furnace

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that eliminates the polymers.

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And then we separate the material

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with mechanical sortation.

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And then you are at the last step

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because the photovoltaic cells contain

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different metals.

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And these metals

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we want to separate them from each other.

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So, we have a chemical treatment.

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A small light chemical treatment

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that we do that detaches the silicon

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from the silver.

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And this way at the end

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we recover all the materials inside the PV panels."

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Basically,

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a solar panel is made of

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a few main ingredients

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that need to be separated

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during the recycling process.

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You’ve got tempered glass,

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thermoplastic glue,

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the cells with silicon, silver and copper,

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a plastic back sheet

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and an aluminum frame

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that holds everything together.

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Of course,

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the precise mix of components

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varies by manufacturer.

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"Why is it so hard to recycle these panels?"

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"So, the good thing with solar panels is

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that they are made to last very long.

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20, 30 years outside in any weather conditions

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they can last, because of the construction.

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This construction,

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with a strong glass sheet in the front

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with polymers gluing everything together,

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it's very water-resistant.

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The problem is: now we need to recycle them.

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And we need to separate

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all these materials to put them back

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in the economy.

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And they are all glued together with polymer.

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So, the most challenging first step

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is to separate the materials from the polymers.

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This is not possible if you crush it,

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because if you crush it you create small particles

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all glued together with this polymer."

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And the plastic is literally everywhere.

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"So, even when you now remove this.

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You still can't access the cells, right?"

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"Exactly. You have different types of polymers,

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different layers."

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"So, there's even more. Oh. Wow."

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"This is difficult, ah?"

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"Yeah."

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So, the first step is to get rid of the plastics.

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The panels get put into this big grey furnace.

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And because ROSI is still

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in the patenting process,

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everything today is pretty much top secret.

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The mastermind behind this process

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is Guy Chichignoud –

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CTO and cofounder of ROSI.

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"Come with me."

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"You can really feel the heat.

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You can really feel the heat. Wow!"

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"How hot does it get in there?"

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"400 degrees."

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"400 degrees. That's really hot,

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so we don’t stay too close for long."

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The panels bake for between

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1.5 and six hours,

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turning the plastics inside into gas.

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"What is really important

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when you look at this process?

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Does it depend on the temperature?

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How the panels are stacked up?

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What makes the difference?"

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"What makes the difference

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and what is our knowledge

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and IP protection is:

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of course, it’s not a standard pyrolysis process.

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It’s customized and optimized

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for the treatment of solar panels.

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What we managed to do

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is to improve the general regulation of the oven

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depending on the source materials.

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So, actually the modules

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contribute to the process.

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It’s not an oven with a payload.

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It’s a combination of the two.

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It's coupled.

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Meaning we use the energy from modules

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to heat up the oven,

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so we can save energy.

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So, it’s a combination — the coupling between the machine,

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 the equipment, the oven and the payload.

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So, the combination of the two makes it more efficient."

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ROSI sends hazardous gases

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and exhaust fumes

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through a five-stage filtering system.

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They say only CO2 and water vapor

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are released in the end.

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But despite the CO2,

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recycling still saves emissions

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compared to mining fresh silicon.

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Creating the base silicon from quartz,

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coal and wood chips

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releases between 8 to 12 tons of CO2

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per ton of silicon.

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ROSI says their recycling process

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only releases 3 tons.

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A reduction of at least 5 tons of CO2

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per ton of silicon.

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The company would not let us show you

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the solar panels going into the furnace.

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But this is what the solar panels look like

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after being "baked in the oven".

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This batch is about 20 kilos

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and represents the content of one solar panel.

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"You can see the glass.

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You can see the silicon wafers,

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which are like super thin.

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Yeah.

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And you can just break them into pieces.

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Yeah.

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And then you've got the copper connectors..."

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"...copper ribbons."

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Now, this mess goes into

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the next range of machines

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that take on the sorting job.

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When you look at a typical solar panel

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from the weight perspective,

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it’s about 76% glass,

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10% plastic,

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8% aluminum,

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5% silicon,

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1% copper,

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and 0.1% silver.

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And it’s that really valuable silver

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that’s the main goal of this whole process.

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Though first,

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we need to extract the copper and glass.

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But…

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"This whole process

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isn’t the only way to recycle solar panels.

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Other companies are trying it

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with mechanical recycling, for example.

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It’s less energy-intensive,

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it costs less

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and you do not need to deal

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with chemicals afterwards."

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However, the recovery rates can be lower.

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Firms like Solar Materials in Germany

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are using heat, like ROSI,

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at the start of their process,

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but no chemical baths.

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"In Japan,

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there is even one called the hot blade method.

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And like the name suggests:

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a really hot and sharp knife is used

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to separate the glass from the rest."

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Another German company is

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 — putting it very, very simply —

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hitting the solar panels with lightning.

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This bursts them into several components

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which are then sortable.

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"I don't think I can pick

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a clear favorite right now."

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Marius Ian Peters

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has been researching photovoltaics

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for more than 20 years

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and is concerned about

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how to deal with all the plastics

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in the solar panels.

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"I'm not exactly happy, for example,

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with a thermal process

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in which the polymers are incinerated,

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because we would lose those polymers

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to go into a state

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for which the elements are still in there.

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Now, that being said,

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it is very hard currently to take a polymer

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that's inside the solar panel,

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get it out of the solar panel,

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and treat it in a way

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that we can reuse it as a polymer.

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It's very energy-intensive to do that.

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And it doesn't really compete

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 both energetically or economically,

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or ecologically, with making a new polymer."

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So, plastics are going to stay a pain to deal with,

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but what about the remaining materials

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after the mechanical sortation?

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"Now, most of the materials are separated,

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but we still need to get out

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the most valuable one

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that is still in these photovoltaic cells

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connected to the silicon:

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it's the silver."

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The thousands of pieces of photovoltaic cells

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in these containers go through

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a set of five to eight chemical wet baths

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that are connected to each other.

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Here, the silicon and the silver

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are separated from one another.

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"It is these tiny tiny silver lines

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that we are talking about here.

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Their job in a solar panel

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is to make the electricity available

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for direct use or storage in a battery, for example."

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In case you’re wondering,

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this is as much of the process

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as we could show you.

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"Can you specify a bit

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what kind of chemicals you use?

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Because chemistry is, like, a really wide term."

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"We avoid the use of organic solvents

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and strong acids,

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and we have specific conditions

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with different baths

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to treat the photovoltaic cells."

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That’s as specific as they would get.

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Because we can’t really show you

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the inside of the process,

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we set it up a small experiment.

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So, you first have the photovoltaic cells

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as they enter and, every step,

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you can see

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the silver fingers detach a little more.

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"It's like really tiny, small fingers."

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"Yes, it is very, very thin."

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"Yeah, it almost looks like hair."

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"Yeah."

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"What's the purity on the silver

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and on the silicon that comes out of this?"

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"So, our processes in general enable [us] to keep

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the same purity for the material

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when they come in.

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So we don't degrade the purity.

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So, for example for the silver,

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it comes from silver paste

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on the cells

278
00:10:11.002 --> 00:10:15.388
and silver pastes are, in general, above 90% purity.

279
00:10:15.388 --> 00:10:19.808
For the silicon, it's 99.99%."

280
00:10:20.341 --> 00:10:23.779
"Okay. That sounds quite pure."

281
00:10:25.778 --> 00:10:27.395
The recovered purity is in line

282
00:10:27.395 --> 00:10:29.436
with scientifically published papers.

283
00:10:29.436 --> 00:10:31.613
But for the economics of the process

284
00:10:31.613 --> 00:10:33.752
another number is important:

285
00:10:34.018 --> 00:10:35.464
how much of the materials

286
00:10:35.464 --> 00:10:36.933
is actually recovered.

287
00:10:37.573 --> 00:10:39.218
With their combination of thermal

288
00:10:39.218 --> 00:10:40.827
and chemical recycling steps,

289
00:10:41.040 --> 00:10:42.880
ROSI says they are able to recover

290
00:10:42.880 --> 00:10:45.760
99% of the glass, aluminum and copper,

291
00:10:45.760 --> 00:10:50.830
90% of the silicon and 95% of the silver.

292
00:10:51.763 --> 00:10:53.128
Which means that they get about

293
00:10:53.128 --> 00:10:56.482
10 USD worth of silver out of each solar panel.

294
00:10:56.908 --> 00:10:57.538
The other stuff

295
00:10:57.538 --> 00:10:59.899
— glass, aluminum, copper and silicon —

296
00:10:59.899 --> 00:11:02.289
is worth another 10 bucks.

297
00:11:02.555 --> 00:11:03.256
But of course,

298
00:11:03.256 --> 00:11:05.151
the recovered materials cost more

299
00:11:05.151 --> 00:11:06.814
than virgin materials.

300
00:11:07.374 --> 00:11:08.800
"Do you have the feeling that

301
00:11:08.800 --> 00:11:11.679
companies are willing to pay these premiums

302
00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:13.519
that you have for recycled material?"

303
00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:14.699
"Yeah, unfortunately,

304
00:11:14.699 --> 00:11:16.787
they don't pay big premium.

305
00:11:16.787 --> 00:11:19.602
But today all the big companies,

306
00:11:19.602 --> 00:11:21.720
all big industrial companies in Europe

307
00:11:21.720 --> 00:11:24.243
have very strong targets on CO2 reduction

308
00:11:24.243 --> 00:11:26.523
and using recycled material

309
00:11:26.523 --> 00:11:27.795
is a very good way for them

310
00:11:27.795 --> 00:11:29.315
to reduce their CO2 emission

311
00:11:29.315 --> 00:11:30.976
from their raw materials.

312
00:11:32.682 --> 00:11:35.602
So, already with silicon, for instance,

313
00:11:35.602 --> 00:11:38.371
the CO2 emissions of silicon production

314
00:11:38.371 --> 00:11:39.102
is very high.

315
00:11:39.422 --> 00:11:41.803
So, for our customers, it's crucial

316
00:11:41.803 --> 00:11:45.110
that they use less CO2 intensive materials.

317
00:11:45.270 --> 00:11:48.042
And our silicon completely fulfills this target.

318
00:11:48.868 --> 00:11:51.026
I would’ve loved to compare the prices

319
00:11:51.026 --> 00:11:53.734
for recovered materials to actual market prices,

320
00:11:53.734 --> 00:11:55.940
but ROSI wouldn’t tell me their numbers.

321
00:11:56.340 --> 00:11:57.488
Luckily for them,

322
00:11:57.488 --> 00:11:59.809
in France there is a so-called gate fee

323
00:11:59.809 --> 00:12:01.886
that every solar importer or seller

324
00:12:01.886 --> 00:12:03.892
must pay to recycling companies

325
00:12:03.892 --> 00:12:04.648
to make sure

326
00:12:04.648 --> 00:12:06.657
the panels are rightfully taken care of

327
00:12:06.657 --> 00:12:08.218
at their end of life.

328
00:12:08.778 --> 00:12:10.219
Just to put this in perspective:

329
00:12:10.219 --> 00:12:11.279
a study by

330
00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:13.365
the US National Renewable Energy Lab

331
00:12:13.365 --> 00:12:15.624
put the cost of trashing a solar panel

332
00:12:15.624 --> 00:12:17.139
at under $5,

333
00:12:17.539 --> 00:12:19.140
whereas recycling one would cost

334
00:12:19.140 --> 00:12:21.170
$15 to $45.

335
00:12:21.810 --> 00:12:24.450
So, how do you make recycling pay?

336
00:12:27.275 --> 00:12:28.651
ROSI say they can process

337
00:12:28.651 --> 00:12:32.205
around 3,000 tons of solar panels per year here.

338
00:12:32.445 --> 00:12:33.689
Not really that much

339
00:12:33.689 --> 00:12:36.064
compared to the millions of tons of trash

340
00:12:36.064 --> 00:12:37.991
expected in the upcoming years.

341
00:12:38.657 --> 00:12:40.227
And it’s not even enough for them

342
00:12:40.227 --> 00:12:41.100
to break even.

343
00:12:41.793 --> 00:12:44.021
But they're already planning to build a facility

344
00:12:44.021 --> 00:12:45.987
10 times bigger in Germany

345
00:12:45.987 --> 00:12:47.694
by the end of 2025.

346
00:12:47.934 --> 00:12:49.713
Which should be able to handle

347
00:12:49.713 --> 00:12:51.965
30,000 tons per year.

348
00:12:52.978 --> 00:12:55.049
However, upscaling such a process

349
00:12:55.049 --> 00:12:56.912
is a real challenge,

350
00:12:56.912 --> 00:12:58.585
as their CEO told me.

351
00:12:59.630 --> 00:13:02.802
"For the very big-scale recycling site,

352
00:13:02.802 --> 00:13:06.104
we'll have to organize very well the operators,

353
00:13:06.104 --> 00:13:09.962
engineers, technicians, so all the traceability system,

354
00:13:09.962 --> 00:13:13.617
and also how to integrate the operators,

355
00:13:13.617 --> 00:13:17.762
 so human beings with the automation, to reduce the cost

356
00:13:17.762 --> 00:13:21.961
to protect to maximum the safety of the site."

357
00:13:22.575 --> 00:13:24.766
"Also, you can’t use this recycled silicon

358
00:13:24.766 --> 00:13:27.082
straight away to form a new PV module."

359
00:13:27.802 --> 00:13:28.801
One of the reasons being:

360
00:13:28.801 --> 00:13:30.253
the technology moved on.

361
00:13:30.546 --> 00:13:31.911
Twenty, thirty years ago,

362
00:13:32.124 --> 00:13:36.061
silicon of 99.999% purity was used.

363
00:13:36.274 --> 00:13:37.604
Sounds pretty pure.

364
00:13:37.844 --> 00:13:39.840
However, today silicon more than

365
00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:42.329
a thousand times purer is required.

366
00:13:42.835 --> 00:13:45.425
So, you’d need another purification process

367
00:13:45.638 --> 00:13:48.739
after this to create new silicon ingots

368
00:13:48.926 --> 00:13:52.767
and new wafers to put into new modules.

369
00:13:54.712 --> 00:13:57.043
This has been done on the science side.

370
00:13:58.269 --> 00:14:00.897
For example, by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute,

371
00:14:00.897 --> 00:14:02.827
a research body that works closely

372
00:14:02.827 --> 00:14:04.065
with industry partners.

373
00:14:04.465 --> 00:14:07.089
But ROSI is taking a different route

374
00:14:07.089 --> 00:14:09.013
and is selling its recovered materials

375
00:14:09.013 --> 00:14:10.220
to the automotive,

376
00:14:10.220 --> 00:14:12.769
building and electronics industries.

377
00:14:14.821 --> 00:14:17.456
"Another way to make this whole thing easier,

378
00:14:17.456 --> 00:14:19.469
and that wouldn’t require engineering

379
00:14:19.469 --> 00:14:21.462
the recycling process to perfection,

380
00:14:21.462 --> 00:14:24.349
is to redesign these solar panels

381
00:14:24.349 --> 00:14:25.932
and make them easier to recycle."

382
00:14:26.412 --> 00:14:27.610
The Netherland Organisation

383
00:14:27.610 --> 00:14:29.176
for Applied Scientific Research

384
00:14:29.176 --> 00:14:30.320
has developed what they call

385
00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:31.642
a "release encapsulant"

386
00:14:31.642 --> 00:14:32.740
where a type of trigger

387
00:14:32.740 --> 00:14:34.376
is worked into the polymers

388
00:14:34.376 --> 00:14:36.866
that make them easier to get rid of during recycling.

389
00:14:37.389 --> 00:14:40.205
Like pressing a button and everything goes

390
00:14:40.205 --> 00:14:41.022
poof.

391
00:14:42.168 --> 00:14:43.970
"At the National Energy Laboratory in the US,

392
00:14:43.970 --> 00:14:45.709
they are taking things up a notch

393
00:14:45.709 --> 00:14:47.990
by getting rid of all the plastic.

394
00:14:47.990 --> 00:14:49.005
And they are doing this

395
00:14:49.271 --> 00:14:51.956
by literally welding glass together."

396
00:14:52.569 --> 00:14:54.336
That way you wouldn’t need to deal with

397
00:14:54.336 --> 00:14:57.271
plastics used for encapsulation at all.

398
00:14:57.591 --> 00:14:58.401
But, of course,

399
00:14:58.401 --> 00:15:00.819
this is all still happening in the lab.

400
00:15:01.485 --> 00:15:03.633
Another promising tech could actually be

401
00:15:03.633 --> 00:15:05.023
perovskite solar cells,

402
00:15:05.023 --> 00:15:07.146
which I already did a video on.

403
00:15:07.386 --> 00:15:08.601
Because the different layers

404
00:15:08.601 --> 00:15:10.244
of perovskite solar panels

405
00:15:10.244 --> 00:15:12.072
are created using chemicals,

406
00:15:12.392 --> 00:15:14.332
they could also be taken apart easier

407
00:15:14.332 --> 00:15:16.924
afterwards by using similar process steps.

408
00:15:17.430 --> 00:15:19.848
But they would need to be mass produced, first.

409
00:15:20.807 --> 00:15:23.055
"What I can say is that the recycling process

410
00:15:23.055 --> 00:15:26.300
for ROSI is working at a pilot facility.

411
00:15:26.700 --> 00:15:28.429
But I’m going to be honest with you:

412
00:15:28.429 --> 00:15:29.910
I expected to get to know

413
00:15:29.910 --> 00:15:32.122
a lot more details about the process.

414
00:15:32.415 --> 00:15:34.646
I don’t even know what chemicals they are using.

415
00:15:34.859 --> 00:15:37.126
And the upscaling is going to be difficult as well.

416
00:15:37.126 --> 00:15:38.382
Not just from the process

417
00:15:38.382 --> 00:15:39.830
or technical side of things,

418
00:15:39.830 --> 00:15:42.395
but they also need to get the financing right.

419
00:15:42.875 --> 00:15:44.440
And everything at the same time?

420
00:15:44.813 --> 00:15:45.649
Not easy.

421
00:15:45.942 --> 00:15:48.820
Overall, bigger players with a lot deeper pockets

422
00:15:48.820 --> 00:15:50.448
will have to get involved

423
00:15:50.448 --> 00:15:52.243
to make recycling solar panels

424
00:15:52.243 --> 00:15:54.507
at a larger scale a reality."

425
00:15:54.880 --> 00:15:56.078
"If you did enjoy the video:

426
00:15:56.078 --> 00:15:57.750
like it, comment on it, share it.

427
00:15:57.750 --> 00:15:59.786
And don’t forget to subscribe to our channel.

428
00:15:59.786 --> 00:16:01.045
We post new videos

429
00:16:01.045 --> 00:16:02.707
on the environment every Friday.

430
00:16:02.707 --> 00:16:03.644
Thank's!"