NSF Grant What to Do with Aging Solar Panels?

Backed by a 5 million dollar NSF grant, researchers aim to make solar panels recyclable, recovering critical materials like silicon and silver to build a sustainable, circular economy for U.S. solar energy.

The National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator Program has granted 5 million dollars to Phase 2 of the project “Securing critical material supply chains by enabling photovoltaic circularity (Solar).”

Solar’s goal is to proactively ensure circularity of solar panels by providing solutions to barriers throughout the end-to-end supply chain. The intent is to make solar panels recyclable and find a solution to remanufacturing them at a competitive cost. Achieving this will help promote a clean and resilient energy system in the United States.

The three-year project is led by Battelle Memorial Institute with partner organizations including Texas A&M University’s Energy Institute. The interdisciplinary team provides the expertise needed to address muti-faceted issues related to solar manufacturing supply chain resilience.

Texas A&M’s participation will be led by Texas A&M Energy Institute’s associate director of Supply Chain Resilience and Sustainability and the Harvey Hubbell Professor of Industrial Distribution, Dr. Eleftherios Iakovou, with the director of the Texas A&M Energy Institute and distinguished professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Dr. Stratos Pistikopoulos.

The Energy Institute’s role in Solar is focused on advancing reverse logistics models and next-generation data-driven supply chains specifically for recycling solar panels and reusing their critical materials, such as silicon and silver.

“We are enhancing the competitiveness of the U.S. solar manufacturing supply chain by retrieving rare earth minerals from solar panels that are decommissioned, either because they break or have reached end of life,” Iakovou said. “These precious rare earth minerals have the potential to be used in other critical and increasingly reshored supply chains, developing a circular economy for solar panels, while further enhancing the overall resilience and sustainability of the nation’s energy and manufacturing supply chains within the new geopolitical landscape.”

According to Pistikopoulos, transitioning the solar industry towards a circular economy by establishing sustainable recycling pathways for solar panels involves three core areas: sorting, upcycling, and logistics.

Sorting focuses on creating field guides, developing workforce skills and deploying sensors for panel damage detection.

Upcycling is the recovery and purification of critical materials such as silicon.

Logistics is the component responsible for creating user-friendly modeling tools to streamline supply chain management for recyclable materials.

Together, these three core areas form a comprehensive approach to address the complex challenges in the solar panel ecosystem.

“Our contribution emphasizes the development of reverse supply chain logistics and decision-making frameworks, facilitating a more sustainable end-of-life management,” Pistikopoulos said. “By addressing complex logistics and recycling challenges, we aim to enable efficient pathways for re-integrating critical materials into the economy.”

During the next three years, the Solar team will conduct yearly evaluations to assess progress. They will also integrate new insights to ensure they build on previous findings from Phase 1 while adapting to technological advances and market conditions.

“The knowledge, tools, and technologies we are developing here will play a crucial role in shaping a future where solar energy can be both renewable and circular, ultimately contributing to a resilient and secure materials supply chain for the U.S.,” Pistikopoulos said. “As solar panel deployment continues to accelerate, establishing a sustainable and economically viable end-of-life management in terms of reducing waste and regaining important materials is essential.”

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