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Highly efficient delamination technologies to recover and reuse metals, glass, polymers from end-of-life photovoltaic panels

Project description

Where do solar panels go when they die?

Photovoltaic (PV) panels have a useful lifespan of around 25 to 30 years. After that time or if they get damaged, they require replacement. As the number of PV installations increases, the disposal and recycling of these panels has become an important issue. The EU-funded EVERPV aims to develop efficient solutions for the sustainable treatment of end-of-life PV panels and recovery of high-purity materials. The project will demonstrate two innovative technologies to separate the layers of PV panels. This will enable the recovery of high-quality glass, polymers, and silver, with purity levels exceeding 99%. The goal is to recover enough materials to produce more than 350 000 new panels per year by 2030.

Objective

EVERPV’s objective is to provide EU with efficient solutions for a sustainable treatment of end-of-life PV panels and recovery of high purity and high integrity materials. Based on the grinding of PV panels waste from the backside and/or the use of IR lamps heating, EVERPV will demonstrate two innovative technologies to delaminate the different layers of the PV panel. Combined with recycling processes, it will enable to recover glass with less than 1% impurities, encapsulant and backsheet polymers with a purity over 99%, and silver with a purity of 99%. Besides, the project will cluster with other EU-funded consortia already addressing the recycling of silicon (e.g. PHOTORAMA) to provide with a global solution. The new delamination technologies will be respectively demonstrated at ENVIE recycling plant and at 9TECH to reach TRL7. The technology demonstrated during EVERPV project targets to process more than 3000 tons of solar panels per year, thus recovering enough raw materials recovered to produce more than 350 000 new panels per year by 2030. EVERPV will finally demonstrate the potential for reusability of recovered materials in several industrial value chains in particular in the PV industry. The project will lead a strategic analysis on the potential of new EoL panels circular value chains based on estimated PV waste generation together with environmental and societal impact assessments. EVERPV has gathered a consortium of 16 participants from 8 countries whose expertise ranges from solar PV materials and recycling processes (CEA, CSEM, ENEA, TEC), recyclers (ENVIE, 9TECH), process industries and materials suppliers (SGB, DTF, DPL, JBR), PV modules manufacturing (VAL), collecting and waste treatment organizations (SOREN, ERION), policy-making, business and training facilitators (SPE, UNITAR, BI).

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL5-2022-D3-03

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Coordinator

COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 526 122,90
Address
RUE LEBLANC 25
75015 Paris
France

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Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
Activity type
Research Organisations
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Total cost

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Participants (13)

Partners (4)

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