Mechanical Glass‐Backsheet Photovoltaic Modules Delamination: Toward Materials Recycling

As photovoltaic (PV) power generation has been booming in recent years, the volume of PV panels installed today exceeds 500 GW/year. This means that without a proper way of recycling the PV panels, more than 80 million tons of them could be waiting to be recycled by 2050. Over time, different PV module delamination techniques are developed, but none of them is fully satisfactory in terms of either cost, yield, environmental performance, or purity of recovered materials. A new technology based on sanding has been developed at CEA to collect most of the materials contained in a PV module in the form of powders. Large abrasive belts running at high speed enable to selective removal of the different layers present in a PV panel. In the EVERPV project (EU‐funded project), a pilot line specifically designed for this application is being installed by one of the industrial partners, ENVIE 2 E Aquitaine in France. This technology is specifically suited for Glass//Backsheet PV panels, which represent today the vast majority of the end of life PV panels. This article describes the process and the equipment used, as well as the results at the pilot scale.