Obsolete solar panels recycling and economic growth

In this paper we investigate the impact of recycling obsolete solar panels on the economic growth rate and the optimal time of depletion of exhaustible resources. A simple growth model is adopted, where the solar panels constitute the physical capital, while the stock of technological progress, the labour costs and the exhaustible resources are the other inputs. Using several theoretical hypotheses regarding technological progress accumulation and the recycling of obsolete solar panels, we study how these processes impact upon the growth rate of the economy and the optimal depletion time of exhaustible resources. The analysis is focussed on the case in which the exhaustible resource is used with secondary solar panels, even with the case in which it is only secondary solar panels which can be used to produce aggregate output. The optimal switching point of time is derived, from the regime where primary and secondary input are used together, to the regime in which the exhaustible resources are completely depleted and only secondary solar panels are used. The growth rate is greater when exhaustible resources are used together with secondary solar panels and the recycling rate is made endogenous.