Cleaning after solar panels: applying a circular outlook to clean energy research

Abstract

In this paper, we study the link between renewable technology adoption and the resulting waste, drawing parallels from our experience with the WEEE Directive to suggest policy recommendations and highlight future research directions. Our ideas are driven by the observation that the sharp reduction in solar panel installation costs along with improvements in their energy conversion efficiency has driven a rapid growth in the adoption of this technology. We note a potential caveat to such rapid growth in adoption: existing installations being retired earlier than their projected 30-year lifetime. In this context, we build a model of the technology adoption and replacement behaviour of solar panel end-users. We conduct a numerical analysis to calculate the solar panel replacement incentives of US residential households, and project the resulting waste from residential panels. We find that annual new waste introduced into the market can exceed the volume of new installations within the next decade, which can more than double the levelized cost of energy for solar generation and jeopardise the cost competitiveness of this technology in the foreseeable future. These observations reflect the importance of a circular economy outlook in renewable energy system design and call for further research in this area.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable operations
• renewable energy
• end-of-life management
• solar panels
• circular economy
• e-waste

Acknowledgements

We thank colleagues at Institut National d’Energie Solaire (INES) France for their valuable inputs addressing solar technology related questions we had.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets generated to support the analyses in this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. These data were derived from the following resources available in the public domain:

Barbose, Galen, and Naïm Darghouth. 2020. ‘Tracking the Sun: Pricing and Design Trends for Distributed Photovoltaic Systems in the United States: Distributed Solar 2020 Data Update’ (dataset). Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Accessed May 19, 2021. https://emp.lbl.gov/tracking-the-sun.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory. 2020. 2020 Annual Technology Baseline. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Accessed April 30 2021. https://atb.nrel.gov/.

The World Bank. 2019. ‘Global Solar Atlas, v2.4.’ Accessed May 19 2021. http://globalsolaratlas.info/

US Energy Information Administration. 2021. ‘Electricity Data Browser.’ EIA. Accessed May 19 2021. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/browser/.

Notes

1 Our insights are robust to how the residual value is accounted for. Similar results can be obtained even for an extreme scenario with no residual value in the [$T$, $T+n$] range for the replace early option and are available from the authors.

2 McDonald and Pearce (2010) report a weight of 12.32 kg per module. Sica et al. (2018) states 103.4 kg per kWp installed of panels. In IRENA and IEA-PVPS (2016), a common constant factor of 100t/MW is reported along with an exponentially decreasing weight-to-power curve that accounts for panels becoming lighter over time. In this case, weight-to-power ratio decreases exponentially from around 110 t/MW in 2000 to 60t/MW by 2030.

3 State of California, Department of Toxic Substances Control, Ref. R-2017-04

4 Washington Rev. Code §70.355

5 NC Regulation H329 passed in 2019

Additional information

Notes on contributors

A. Serasu Duran

Serasu Duran is an assistant professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management at Haskayne School of Business. Her research centres on investigating the impacts and operational aspects of new and disruptive technologies on existing supply chains, with a focus on the energy industry and electricity markets. She is particularly interested in working on research questions motivated by real-life challenges that can guide policy. Prior to joining Haskayne, she completed her PhD studies at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Atalay Atasu

Atalay Atasu is a professor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD and holds the Bianca and James Pitt Chair in Environmental Sustainability. His research focus is on sustainable operations management, and his interests include the circular economy, extended producer responsibility and environmental regulation. His publications appeared in academic outlets such as Management Science, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, Production and Operations Management and Journal of Industrial Ecology, and practitioner outlets such as Harvard Business Review and California Management Review. He is the recipient of a number of research awards, including the MSOM Society Best OM Paper Award (2020), MSOM Society Responsible Research Award (2019 winner and runner-up), Wickham Skinner Best Paper Award (winner 2007, runner-up 2014), Wickham Skinner Early Career Research Award (2012), and Paul Kleindorfer Award in Sustainability (2013). He served as president of the MSOM Society (2020–21); as a Department editor for the Production and Operations Management Journal (2018–2021), and Associate Editor for Production and Operations Management (2009–2018) and Manufacturing and Service Operations Management (2016-).

Luk N. Van Wassenhove

Luk Van Wassenhove is an emeritus professor of Technology and Operations Management at INSEAD and holds the Henry Ford Chair in Manufacturing, as emeritus. His current research focuses on aligning business models and new technologies with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, e.g. closed-loop supply chains, circular economy, and disaster and health logistics. He recently co-edited special issues on humanitarian operations for the Journal of Operations Management, the Production and Operations Management Journal and the European Journal of Operational Research. He is Fellow of the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS 2005). In 2006, he received EURO’s Gold Medal. He is Distinguished Fellow of the Manufacturing and Services Operations Management Society (MSOM 2009), and Honorary Fellow of the European Operations Management Association (EUROMA 2013). In 2018 he was elected Fellow of INFORMS and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Thessaloniki. He created the INSEAD Social Innovation Center and acted as academic director until 2010. He currently leads INSEAD’s Humanitarian Research Group and its Sustainable Operations Initiative.