Silicon, lithium, and other minerals are essential to build the most effective solar panels capable of delivering power levels homes and properties use nowadays. However, the world’s resources are finite that we require recycling to ensure manufacturers can build new and much more effective solar panels. The world’s widespread adoption of solar panels can fall short of expectations without proper solar panel recycling.
The lifecycle of a solar panel system consists of installation, commissioning and decommissioning. Solar panels require installation before they can be utilized to produce electricity. The process is completed by commissioning the system to ensure that the panels are functioning correctly. Finally, decommissioning is performed when the panels are no longer needed and must be removed from their location.
The decommissioned panels will head to scrapyards where manufacturers can pick up materials for recycling. Fortunately, solar panel material deconstruction consumes sufficient electricity that allows plants to save energy in breaking down raw materials.
Solar panel recycling helps drive down manufacturing costs, which is one of the major components of solar material pricing (competition between manufacturers is the second. Modern recycling plant designs guarantee reduced energy consumption during solar panel rebuilding procedures.
Recycling is a major component of having a solar and battery-powered future as the world turns away from coal, gas, and fossil fuel-generated electricity. Read more about the possibility of this future in Solar Quotes’ post below.
Last year the International Energy Agency (IAE) published a report titled…
The Role of Critical Minerals In Clean Energy Transitions
I recently dived deep into its 260 pages to see if a shortage of critical minerals threatens the world’s transition to a renewable future.
After surfacing, I can say the report makes three points I concur with:
There’s no shortage of required minerals. More than enough economically viable deposits to build a renewable future have been discovered.
The production of some minerals will need to greatly increase to produce the solar panels, wind turbines, battery storage, and electric vehicles required to replace fossil fuels.
Shortages of key minerals have the potential to slow our transition to renewable energy.
There are also two points I’d like to emphasize that are supported by the report but does not clearly state:
Mining for lithium, copper, nickel, rare earth elements and potentially other materials will greatly increase — but the total amount of mining required by the energy sector will decrease due to reduced extraction of coal, oil, and natural gas.
No shortage — or even concurrent multiple shortages — can reverse the transition to renewables. There’s no plausible scenario where it suddenly becomes profitable to build new coal power stations or shut down electric vehicle production and go back to building internal combustion engines cars. Shortages can only slow down the replacement of fossil fuel infrastructure and can’t stop it.
That really all you need to know about the report. But if you are keen for more details – or are currently shouting at your screen that I’m an imbecile and those conclusions can’t be right because they don’t line up with your view of the world, feel free to read the ~5,000 words of detailed analysis below.
260 Pages Of Fun
The report gives information on mineral use by different types of low emission generation and predictions on how much capacity will be installed. I’ll give details on what the report says about solar power, electricity networks and battery storage – both stationary and in EVs.
The report gives six recommendations on how mineral shortages can be avoided. I’ll list them all and go into one of them — increased recycling — in detail. I’ll then explain why I’m optimistic about the future supply of minerals and think they’ll be sufficient to allow a rapid transition to renewable energy.
You can read the 260-page report here. I recommend reading the whole thing — provided you’re a nerd of Brobdingnagian proportions. Which you definitely are if you know what the word Brobdingnagian means. (Continue reading here to learn more)
If you have yet to find a reliable solar panel installation team, you can always count on us at Roper Roofing & Solar. Contact us today to learn more about everything we can do for you.
