Periodic Reporting for period 1 - QUASAR (70%plus eco-efficiency gains in the PV EOL supply chain by closed loop systems with enhanced recycling rates, systematic collection and management utilising digital twins)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2023-09-01 do 2025-05-31
The rapid growth of solar photovoltaics (PV) is central to Europe’s clean energy transition, but it also creates a challenge: how to deal with the large number of solar panels that will reach the end of their life in the coming decades. Today, recycling mainly recovers glass and aluminium, while valuable materials such as silicon, copper, and silver are mostly lost. Different panel designs, complex layers, and poor traceability make efficient recycling and reuse even more difficult. Without new solutions, millions of tonnes of PV waste risk being landfilled or downcycled, causing environmental harm and wasting raw materials that are vital for Europe’s Green Deal and REPowerEU ambitions.
The QUASAR project addresses this by developing a comprehensive approach for the circular management of PV modules that have reached their end of life. It combines advanced recycling technologies with digital tools for traceability, repair, and reuse, creating transparent and cost-effective value chains. Two pilot recycling plants will be built to demonstrate high-throughput, high-purity recovery, aiming to recycle 70–90% of all material fractions. At the same time, a digital product passports will allow panels to be tracked, help to decide between reuse or recycling, and optimise logistics. Repair and second-life solutions will be tested alongside recycling, ensuring that as much value as possible is retained.
QUASAR’s goals are to lower the costs of decommissioning PV plants and repair, reach recycling throughputs of around 10,000 tonnes per year, generate revenues from the recovered materials, and establish European recycling hubs capable of supplying high-quality secondary raw materials back into PV, semiconductor, glass, and chemical industries. Environmental and economic benefits will be assessed, while new business models will prepare the ground for wider adoption across Europe. In this way, QUASAR will turn end-of-life PV modules from a growing waste problem into a valuable resource, reducing import dependence, advancing Europe’s circular economy, and strengthening a sustainable and competitive PV industry.
The QUASAR project addresses this by developing a comprehensive approach for the circular management of PV modules that have reached their end of life. It combines advanced recycling technologies with digital tools for traceability, repair, and reuse, creating transparent and cost-effective value chains. Two pilot recycling plants will be built to demonstrate high-throughput, high-purity recovery, aiming to recycle 70–90% of all material fractions. At the same time, a digital product passports will allow panels to be tracked, help to decide between reuse or recycling, and optimise logistics. Repair and second-life solutions will be tested alongside recycling, ensuring that as much value as possible is retained.
QUASAR’s goals are to lower the costs of decommissioning PV plants and repair, reach recycling throughputs of around 10,000 tonnes per year, generate revenues from the recovered materials, and establish European recycling hubs capable of supplying high-quality secondary raw materials back into PV, semiconductor, glass, and chemical industries. Environmental and economic benefits will be assessed, while new business models will prepare the ground for wider adoption across Europe. In this way, QUASAR will turn end-of-life PV modules from a growing waste problem into a valuable resource, reducing import dependence, advancing Europe’s circular economy, and strengthening a sustainable and competitive PV industry.
A Europe-wide study estimated how many solar panels will reach their end-of-life between now and 2050. Depending on how long panels last in real operation, the amount of waste could range from about 7 million to over 60 million tonnes. These projections, which also take into account changes in solar panel technology, provide a foundation for planning future recycling strategies. To support practical work for PV plant operators, user guides for module field inspection and PV plant decommissioning, including cost models for different system sizes and designs are provided. Digital tools were also advanced. An early version of a decision-support toolbox was created to help design efficient end-of-life logistic chains, while a web-based Product Lifecycle Information Management system was launched to enable traceability of solar panels throughout their entire life. For reuse, QUASAR explored repair options and developed machine learning methods to automatically detect defects in solar cells. A simple repair technique for damaged backsheets was successfully demonstrated, showing how panels can be safely extended for continued use. Two pilot recycling technologies were tested. A thermal process (pyrolysis) showed that contamination in the recovered materials could be significantly reduced, while a new waterjet-based system for delaminating panels increased processing speed by a factor of seven, achieving a capacity of 7,500 tonnes per year and producing clean glass sheets ready for reuse or recycling. Material recovery results were promising: silver of over 96% purity and silicon of nearly 100% purity were obtained, while polymers and glass were also successfully recovered, though patterned glass with higher antimony content remains challenging for reuse. Finally, an alternative panel design without traditional encapsulants was developed easing the disassembly of panels, and early work on smart sensors for digital product passports demonstrated ways to track the condition and history of solar panels.
Recycling is today the default strategy for decommissioned PV panels in Europe. Since the 2018 amendment to the WEEE directive, 85% of PV panels placed on the market must be collected and 80% recycled. At the same time, the global scale of PV waste is set to grow dramatically. According to IRENA’s 1.5°C scenario, cumulative waste from solar PV will rise from 0.2 million tonnes in 2021 to 49 million tonnes in 2040 and 212 million tonnes in 2050. If the solar panels are systematically collected and recycled at an 85% rate, this could supply 3–7% of the PV industry’s demand for aluminium, copper, glass, silicon and silver during the 2030s, and more than 20% in the 2040s, with an estimated raw material value of USD 8.8 billion by 2050.
The outcomes of QUASAR show clear potential impacts. High-yield recovery of silicon, silver, copper, polymers, and glass can create a valuable secondary raw materials market in Europe, directly reducing dependence on imports of critical resources. Lower decommissioning and inspection costs demonstrated in the project will make end-of-life management more affordable, while digital tools such as product passports improve traceability and transparency across the supply chain. Repair and reuse approaches contribute to significant waste reduction and extend the lifetime of assets, maximising value before recycling.
The outcomes of QUASAR show clear potential impacts. High-yield recovery of silicon, silver, copper, polymers, and glass can create a valuable secondary raw materials market in Europe, directly reducing dependence on imports of critical resources. Lower decommissioning and inspection costs demonstrated in the project will make end-of-life management more affordable, while digital tools such as product passports improve traceability and transparency across the supply chain. Repair and reuse approaches contribute to significant waste reduction and extend the lifetime of assets, maximising value before recycling.