Transfer of circular economy principles to photovoltaics by analy analyzing R principles

Abstract:
Climate change and the resource crisis in combination with advancing technologization and digitalization require the ensuring of a sustainable energy supply. Photovoltaics (PV) is an important pillar of the renewable energy supply, but the structures are linear in orientation. This leads to a large increase in the amounts of PV waste and a loss of important raw materials through downcycling. The circular economy offers starting points for the development of a sustainable circular PV industry, for instance through the R principles. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to transfer the principles of the circular economy to the PV industry and to derive fields of action and research needs. The analysis of the R principles has shown that especially the reuse strategy in the short term and the redesign with the aim of upcycling, repairing, refurbishing, and remanufacturing in the long term offer added value for the PV industry.