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