For large enterprises, the normal sale of photovoltaic business will be more valuable than second-hand recycling, which has not yet been put on the agenda.
China Green Supply Chain Alliance Photovoltaic Recycling Center, by 2030, China's photovoltaic module waste will reach about 18 GW, about 1.4 million tons of waste, with an output value of about 13 billion yuan; By 2040, the cumulative waste of photovoltaic modules will reach 253GW, about 20 million tons, with an output value of 150 billion yuan.
However, the reality of such a new blue ocean with an output value of 100 billion yuan in the future is an embarrassing dilemma. The big companies have been waiting and watching, while the small companies that entered first have been losing money.
Why did the profit-seeking capital not rush up at this time? Could it be that the money earned from recycling is not very good? Will the photovoltaic recycling market with a scale of 100 billion make money in the
future? Small companies that have entered the market in
advance are also generally facing losses. At present, there are two industrial chains in the
photovoltaic recycling industry, one is that second-hand merchants recover relatively complete photovoltaic panels and sell them to overseas (such as the Middle East, Africa and other places) at a premium after simple treatment; The other is to recycle the seriously damaged photovoltaic panels and https://www.databm.
them through physical and chemical processes. However, as the price of first-hand photovoltaic panels is getting lower and lower, the first path has been very difficult to run through. The second recycling path is that most of the companies entering the market are still not making money. Simon, who
is engaged in second-hand photovoltaic business, told Tiger Sniff that small companies are now entering the market to build some processing infrastructure systems, and the cost of early investment will be very high, which can not be recovered immediately. On the other hand, photovoltaic panels have not been decommissioned on a large scale, and small companies can only collect some broken photovoltaic panels, which can not cover the cost at all.
He made a detailed calculation for Tiger Sniff. The price of a piece of glass on the market is 18 to 20 yuan, aluminum is about 20 yuan per kilogram, and the price of a 100-watt second-hand component is about 70 yuan. Small private enterprises are generally unable to establish recycling channels with large power stations owned by state-owned enterprises and central enterprises. At present, they can only collect waste photovoltaic panels scattered in rural areas. The rural recycling price is about 30 or 40 yuan, but the transportation cost, labor cost and disposal cost should be added in the middle, which can not make much money.
Scattered recycling of photovoltaic equipment makes logistics and other costs remain high, which is a core issue. With the large-scale retirement of photovoltaic, batch recycling of logistics and other costs down, photovoltaic recycling enterprises have the possibility of making money.
It is precisely because the time for photovoltaic recovery has not yet arrived that the attitude of major companies at this stage is mainly wait-and-see.
Jingke Energy has said that since 2019, the company has built and commissioned a recycling demonstration line, using chemical-based component environmental protection treatment technology, the recovery rate of silver, copper and silicon can reach more than 95%. In an interview with the media
, Yingli Energy said that it had mastered the core technology of environmental protection recycling of components, and established the first demonstration line of environmental protection recycling of crystalline silicon components based on physical method in China. Greenmay, a
lithium battery recycling company, also said on the interactive platform of listed companies that it had launched relevant technical research and would build a recycling plant for photovoltaic modules when it was suitable for economic value.
These actions, in general, are "I'll pay attention first". Zhao Hongsheng, an expert in the power industry
of Jincheng Energy Bureau and a lawyer from Zhao Hongsheng Law Firm in Shanghai, told Tiger Sniff that the life cycle of photovoltaic modules in the market has not yet ended, so there is no large-scale business development for photovoltaic recycling enterprises, and photovoltaic recycling in Europe and the United States is mainly in the early stage of collecting money, until the end of the photovoltaic cycle. They will use the money they receive now to dispose of waste components in the future.
Simon said that large domestic enterprises are now basically selling products overseas, and it has not yet reached the stage of establishing a domestic recycling system. For large enterprises, the normal sale of photovoltaic business will be more valuable than second-hand recycling, which has not yet been put on the agenda. What is
everyone waiting for?
As the photovoltaic recycling market is now in the initial development period, the industry policy formulation is still in the guidance stage, and there are no detailed policies and regulations. The policies issued in the past two years are mainly based on guidance (such as the Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Comprehensive Utilization of Industrial Resources in February and the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Recycling of Retired Wind Power and Photovoltaic Equipment in August), with the intention of exploring the general direction of the industry.
However, these policies are still in the form of guidance documents, and have not yet mentioned some of the operational issues that the industry is most concerned about, in particular: Who is eligible for recycling? Are production enterprises and photovoltaic power stations responsible for recycling? To what extent must PV modules be retired? And will the government give subsidies and preferential tax policies in the future? Those big companies are also waiting for the policy to come down, "Hong Kai said.".
At present, there are three main recycling technologies for waste PV modules: physical method, pyrolysis method and chemical method, but the industrial application of the technology is not yet mature, and the cost of recycling is high, which requires corresponding financial and policy support at the national level. Globally, only the European Union has introduced a complete management system for the recycling of waste photovoltaic modules from the policy level, while other countries have only taken relevant measures from the industry organization or enterprise level.
However, we may be able to learn from Europe, which is at the forefront of the world in this field, and borrow stones from other hills to attack jade. The
EU's measures on PV recycling are mainly in the following aspects: implementing detailed laws and regulations and time schedule, promoting producer responsibility system and providing policy support for recycling.
In terms of regulations, the European Union promulgated the Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in 2003. WEEE explicitly requires manufacturing operators to be responsible for recycling products they produce that may pollute the environment, and stipulates the disposal of end-of-life electronic and electrical equipment. In 2005, WEEE was formally implemented, and in July 2012, it was upgraded to WEEE 2.
WEEE 2. And WEEE clearly defined the responsibility system for recycling, and WEEE clearly defined the responsibility system for recycling, which simply means "who produces waste, who recycles it". The producer of the component should also ensure the recycling friendliness of the product.
On the other hand, the EU is also responsible for the disposal of waste photovoltaic modules through the "PV CYCLE" and "CERES CYCLE" recycling organization, while giving more policy support to the recycling fund, which can be said to solve the problem of photovoltaic recycling in a multi-pronged manner.
In contrast, there is no clear policy applicable
hindering the photovoltaic recycling industry is technology.
Taking solar panels, the main recycling product in photovoltaic equipment, as an example, the technical challenge of recycling comes from the complexity of components. There are thousands of models of silicon photovoltaic panels, but the design is basically the same. Solar cells contain aluminum, silicon and silver wires, and multiple cells are connected into modules by copper wires soldered with tin and lead. The modules are encased in a protective layer of plastic with glass on top and surrounded by an aluminum frame, and the modules are then joined into a full-size panel.
using chemical method to dissolve materials is that the environmental damage caused by chemical dissolution is greater, while the cost of physical method to grind down materials is high.
Recycling technology iteration is also the direction that the EU is encouraging research breakthroughs. In 2017, the European Union further promulgated EU standards for the recycling of photovoltaic modules, and built a chemical demonstration line with a capacity of 3000 tons per year and a physical/chemical comprehensive demonstration line with a capacity of 200 tons per year. In August 2018, France built Europe's first photovoltaic module recycling plant in Rousset, which can recycle 95% of the materials in crystalline silicon photovoltaic panels.
At present, China's investment in recycling technology is slightly insufficient, but it also has its own rhythm.
In 2021, the Upper Yellow River Hydropower Development Co., Ltd. of the State Power Investment Group built the first pilot line of component recovery in China. Yingli Energy Development Co., Ltd. has successfully developed the first production demonstration line of complete equipment for recycling and processing of crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules based on physical method in China. In 2022, Jiangsu Changzhou Ruisai Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. has successfully developed a complete set of disassembly intelligent equipment and extraction technology in cooperation with universities.
Moreover, more large enterprises and university research institutes in the industry are participating in the industry layout.
Generally speaking, the photovoltaic recycling industry has a clear prospect, and it still needs to wait for the introduction of policies and technology iteration to fill the final gap. With the arrival of the retirement tide of photovoltaic equipment, the photovoltaic recycling industry will inevitably become the next tuyere industry with the support of policy and technology.
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