Solar Photovoltaic Development in West Africa Will Face Million-Ton Waste Challenges, and Off-Grid Systems Will Dominate

Solar photovoltaic (PV), especially off-grid systems, is a low-hanging fruit option among various renewable energy technology choices to address universal energy access, energy security, and climate challenges for vulnerable regions like West Africa. West Africa dominates in the uptake of solar PV solutions, while little attention has been paid to the potential PV waste generation. In this study, we developed a technology-specific, prospective material flow analysis model to investigate material stocks and flows of both on-grid and off-grid solar PV systems for 15 West African countries up to 2050. We show that the cumulative solar PV waste generation ranges from 2.3 to 7.8 million tons by 2050 in West Africa under different scenarios, around 70% of which comes from off-grid PV systems. The potential secondary materials supply ranges from 213 to 704 kilotons, which have potential economic value amounting to 143-475 million dollars or material equivalent to produce 6-19 GW of solar PV capacity. These results call for urgent policy attention, technology development, and infrastructure investment for future PV waste management and highlight the significance of addressing off-grid PV waste in Africa.

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Publication Details

Journal
Environmental Science & Technology
Published
2025-09-24
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c06339
Citations
3
Primary Topic
Photovoltaic Systems and Sustainability
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.40
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article

Solar Photovoltaic Development in West Africa Will Face Million-Ton Waste Challenges, and Off-Grid Systems Will Dominate

Josephine Kaviti Musango, Yvette Baninla, Kasper Dalgas Rasmussen, Di Dong et al.
3 citations
Environmental Science & Technology
Photovoltaic Systems and Sustainability
2.40
article

Solar Photovoltaic Development in West Africa Will Face Million-Ton Waste Challenges, and Off-Grid Systems Will Dominate

Josephine Kaviti Musango, Yvette Baninla, Kasper Dalgas Rasmussen, Di Dong, Gang Liu, Olga Sergienko, Burak Şen, Litao Liu, Norbert Edomah, Onis Emem
article en
3 citations

Abstract

Solar photovoltaic (PV), especially off-grid systems, is a low-hanging fruit option among various renewable energy technology choices to address universal energy access, energy security, and climate challenges for vulnerable regions like West Africa. West Africa dominates in the uptake of solar PV solutions, while little attention has been paid to the potential PV waste generation. In this study, we developed a technology-specific, prospective material flow analysis model to investigate material stocks and flows of both on-grid and off-grid solar PV systems for 15 West African countries up to 2050. We show that the cumulative solar PV waste generation ranges from 2.3 to 7.8 million tons by 2050 in West Africa under different scenarios, around 70% of which comes from off-grid PV systems. The potential secondary materials supply ranges from 213 to 704 kilotons, which have potential economic value amounting to 143-475 million dollars or material equivalent to produce 6-19 GW of solar PV capacity. These results call for urgent policy attention, technology development, and infrastructure investment for future PV waste management and highlight the significance of addressing off-grid PV waste in Africa.

Environmental Science & TechnologyVol. 59(39)
Hiroshima University (JP), Kadir Has University (TR), ITMO University (RU), United States Institute of Peace (US), University of Southern Denmark (DK), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Peking University (CN), Queen's University (CA), University of Bamenda (CM), College of Industrial Engineering (SI), Energy Transitions (United Kingdom) (GB), Institute of Industrial Ecology (RU), Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geology (CZ), Institute of Mining (RU), Life Cycle Engineering (United States) (US), Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (CN), Sustainable Energy Systems (United Kingdom) (GB), Nano Carbon (Poland) (PL), Pan-Atlantic University (NG)
Openalex Percentile: Top 11%
Photovoltaic Systems and Sustainability
2.40
DOISourceOpenAlex
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