Making super-recyclable solar panels and thus creating a European circular economy chain. This is the goal of Photorama, the EU project funded by the Horizon2020 program with 8,4 million euros which sees the participation of 13 research institutes and companies, including Aeneas ed Enel Green Power for Italy.
"The technology that we will develop thanks to this project will make it possible to recover almost 100% of the materials from the panels at the end of their life - explains Massimo Izzi, project manager for Enea and researcher at the Engineering Laboratory for the Photovoltaic Industry - Achieving this goal would help reduce Europe's dependence on imports of critical raw materials".
In detail, Enea will take care of the design of the photovoltaic modules, to make them more easily recyclable, while Enel Green Power will look for a way to produce new panels with recovered raw materials, increasing circularity.
“The new recovery and recycling technology will enable the implementation of a relevant economic business case through a recovery percentage higher than 98% of the materials – concludes Izzi – This is the highest percentage of recycling known worldwide”.
Innovation in photovoltaics is fundamental from a future point of view: according to a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency, in fact, the panels will be equal to 10 million tons in 2030, to then reach about 78 million tons twenty years later. With a similar amount of material it will be possible to build over two billion new panels and generate a turnover of 15 billion dollars. In 2030, however, the turnover linked to recoverable components will be equal to 450 million dollars.
Furthermore, the growth of the electricity production solar will reach a cumulative capacity of 2.840 GW by 2030 and 8.519 GW by 2050, which is equivalent to eighteen times the global capacity in 2018.
