Management of Solar Panels in India

[Music]

hello everyone

my name is nailata pankardin and i would

like to share my research

on management of solar panels in india

to start with

i would like to share an instance where

i had moved to new delhi for my masters

my mom and i had just got to delhi and

she was helping me settle into my pg

once we had settled down we decided to

take a stroll on the terrace

and just soak in the delhi sunset we had

heard the sunsets around july

are quite nice so we went up and there

was hardly any space to walk around

most of the area was covered by solar

panels

and when i looked around there were few

houses like independent condos

which also had panels on their rooftops

it was such a nice thing to see

as most of the panels were being set up

on the rooftop

which converts solar energy into

electricity

i had not seen many panels in my

hometown

we are progressing moving towards

renewable energy and sustainability

and this was the course i was getting

into that is

renewable energy so i started looking

into it and this topic just got more and

more interesting

the next thing that came in my mind was

solar panels

would have shelf life like everything

else

and this would be around 25 to 30 years

so i thought i’d ask my landlord that

since when this panel had been installed

and he told me that this had been around

10 years

this means that these panels would work

for the next 15 years

efficiently so what would happen to

these panels

after these 15 years can they be reused

somewhere else

or will they be recycled or will they be

just dumped in some landfills

and this got me hooked onto the topic i

started discussing this with my

professors

and my friends and it just got

interesting

as a nation we are headed towards big

developments

and renewable energy is a part of it but

we need to keep in mind that

with this waste generations will also be

there

and with this i would like to take you

all 10 to 20 years ahead of 2020.

so let us get a little bit deeper in

india

large solar panel installations started

around 2005

and they started to rise drastically

since 2010.

this was mainly because of the national

solar mission

the world solar panel capacity is around

583 gigawatts

and in india the solar pv capacity is 36

gigahertz and more coming

we have a aim to reach 100 gigawatts by

just imagine the area that this would

cover it would be around

three to four lakh acres of land and

so will be the panels the number of

panels that would be associated with it

the waste that would be generated by

2030

35 can be around 38 000 tons

now what is this wastage the wastage can

be

two types one is the early loss which

would be incurred due to the

transportation

installations damages caused during the

lifetime of these panels

and this would account for 0.41 million

tons and just not few tons but 0.4

million

tons just imagine the amount of waste

and the next type

would be the regular losses which would

be around 38 000

tons and this accounts for the end of

life of these panels

now this 38 000 tons seems to be less

but this would increase

as the number of installations would

increase in their years

so this shows and points the need for

recycling of these panels

in my research i talked about various

recycling processes

and which would enable us to recover

materials like glass

aluminium silica silicon silver copper

and other rare earth metals

and with recycling 96 of these materials

can be recovered

this can be used for remanufacturing of

new panels

or can also be used and other industry

purposes as well

there are different recycling methods

and

costs associated with it which also

depends on the type of

solar panels that we are recycling and

rare earth materials which required

heavy extraction processes can also be

saved with the help of recycling

in short this all can help us reduce

the metals raw material requirements as

well as the energy requirements

for manufacturing of these solar panels

now let us see

that what is happening around the world

in india

we have not yet included the solar pv

waste

into the e-waste policy but european

union

is leaving in recycling of these solar

panels

now this is mainly due to the inclusion

of solar pv waste

in the waste electrical and electronic

directive

this includes collection and recycling

of the panels that are in the end of

life

next is the countries like usa japan

which are working efficiently with

voluntary initiatives to tackle the

solar pv waste

and they are doing quite well

so if we talk about regulations

other than european union the developed

as well as developing countries have not

yet included any regulations for the

solar pv waste

developments are seen in an exponential

rate and we should have solutions for

the waste that will be generated in this

process

we are accelerating towards finding

solution for the climate crisis

having improved technologies for it

working towards various development

goals

but what about the waste what about this

waste that will be created in this

process

and we need to take care that we just do

not add to the heaps that already

exist i would like to give you

suggestions in this process

to tackle the waste that will be

generated in the

near future which includes having

revised

e-waste rules or separate regulations of

frameworks

to tackle the solar pv waste in the

coming future

we can have benchmarks for recycling the

volumes

which will be generated we can have

efficient take back or collection

systems

according to the years of waste that

will be generated government

can have interventions incentives to

provide

so that we can set up recycling plants

in india

or government can also set up plans that

could attract

investors around the world or through

public private partnerships

various organizations and research

institutions

can come together together and work

towards it address this issue

and plan well ahead of time which is

just 10 years ahead of time that is i am

talking about

to tackle the amount of waste that is

0.4 million tons

by 2013. for foreseeable future

renewable energy is inevitable but we

need to look beyond it

beyond the radar to see the condition of

panels that will be generated

and the problems that they bring with we

need to address this

manage it and solve it right now and

right here

with this i would like to thank you all

for patiently listening to me

thank you