CABRISS Public Business Plan
CABRISS Public Business Plan
Website: www.spire2030.eu/cabriss
DISCLAIMER
The information in this document reflects only the author's views and the European Commission is not liable for
any use that may be made of the information contained therein. The information in this document is provided
"as is" without guarantee or warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the fitness of
the information for a particular purpose. The user thereof uses the information at his/ her sole risk and liability.
The CABRISS project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon
2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 641972.
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1
CABRISS Market and Competitive Analysis (internal document)
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Figure 1: Yearly waste volumes (panel lifetime 30 years, slope factor 5.376. Source: CABRISS Market Analysis)
As can be seen from Figure 1, end-of-life waste volumes and values are expected to rise steeply after
2020, peaking in 2041-2042. The European countries that have been the earliest adopters of solar
technologies, will experience the first large wave of wastes, among them Italy, the UK, France, and
with the highest share, Germany.
PV modules – architecture and composition
In principle, PV modules consist of a high-quality and therefore expensive, iron-free glass panel which
covers the front side and an absorber layer which is encapsulated with Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA).
On the back side, the panel is protected either
by a composite-layer backsheet foil (Si PV
modules) or by another glass panel of lower
quality (thin film PV modules). This sandwich is
a tightly bound and complex material mix,
which is not easy to recycle. The low-hanging
fruit from the recycling point of view are the
aluminium frame, the copper cables and the
inverter box which have to be delivered
complete to the primary recycling facility (e.g.
by regulation in Germany). Figure 2: Si PV module architecture
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Between 1990 and 2010, the silicon content of PV panels has decreased by nearly one third2. That
means that the first wave of end-of-life Si PV wastes contains the highest amount of the most valuable
materials, silicon and silver. Recyclers are under pressure to establish technologies that allow a cost-
efficient recovery of these materials.
The mass balance of a typical Si PV panel (to the right)
illustrates that mere recycling of glass, aluminium and
copper cables achieves a recovery rate of more than 90%
of the waste. For thin film PV, the proportion is even
higher. Aluminium frame and copper cables with
junction boxes can be easily separated from the panel
sandwich, which can then be crushed in order to remove
the organic materials. The residues can be quite easily
recovered in refineries that purchase electronic scrap.
But it is difficult to separate the silicon effectively
Junction
without driving up the cost for the recycling process. Backsheet
box
EVA
The most common thin film technologies are CIGS Cop-
Silicon
(copper-indium-gallium-diselenid) and CdTe (cadmium per
Silver
tellurite). A CIGS module is produced by deposition of a
thin-film of a CIGS alloy typically on glass, using ITO Figure 3: Mass balance Si PV panel waste
(Indium Tin Oxide) or indium sputtering targets. Within the active absorbing layer, indium is by far
the most expensive component, though gallium is also valuable. Producers therefore seek to reduce
the production cost by reduction of layer thicknesses of the CIGS active layer – which is limited the
light absorption efficiency would be reduced if the layer got too thin.
WEEE and collection of PV waste - precondition for an emerging business opportunity
In 2007, the PV Cycle Association (European Association for Volontary Take Back and Recycling of PV
Modules) was founded as NGO in order to prepare the European PV sector for the steep increase of
PV end-of-life waste streams. PV Cycle has paved the way for the first legal framework on PV waste
worldwide which is included in the revised WEEE directive of 20123 and based on the extended-
producer-responsibility principle (EPR). In short, the extended-producer-responsibility ensures that
all EU market participants - independent of their location - are liable for the cost of collection,
treatment and monitoring of PV waste and must fulfil financing, reporting and information
responsibilities. The directive sets the targets to collect 85% of waste generated, to recover 85%, and
to recycle and prepare for reuse 80% (figures given will be valid from August 2018, current targets
are slightly lower). The WEEE requires a „high-value recycling approach“ addressing not only
potentially harmful substances, but also rare materials like silver and indium, or materials with highly
embedded values (silicon and glass).4 However, specific target recovery rates for such materials are
not included.
2
CABRISS Market and Competitive Analysis (internal document)
3
Directive 2012/19/EU of the European Parliament, July 2012
4
IRENA_IEAPVPS_End-of-Life_Solar_PV_Panels_2016 Report
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The implementation of the WEEE into national law, has been ongoing in some member countries
until 2016. Therefore, no EU-wide statistical data about collection rates are currently available. But it
is clearly visible that national regulations have broadened and strengthened the business case for a
variety of actors for PV waste recycling in Europe. Among member states, the WEEE directive is
implemented with individual variations. E.g. in Germany, the implementation of the
“Elektroaltgerätegesetz” (Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act) is coordinated by a national
clearing house (Stiftung EAR/Elektro-Altgeräte Register), while a number of service providers (e.g. PV
Cycle Germany, take-e-way, European Recycling Platform/Land bell) for PV compliance, take-back
and recycling share the actual collection of PV waste and organise recycling with certified primary
recycling facilities (to whom they deliver wastes for a service fee). In France, PV take back and
recycling is organised centrally. PV CYCLE France is approved by the public authorities for the
management of PV wastes and collects and recycles the entire available waste. Panels are effectively
processed with a contract partner (Veolia) at a central treatment site which will enable the recycling
of more than 1,400 annual tonnes of materials by the end of 2017.
Recycling of PV wastes: state of the art
Before the implementation of the WEEE directive in Europe, several attempts were made to identify
economically viable solutions for PV recycling. In 2009, a process based on thermal treatment of
modules followed by chemical treatment was implemented at an industrial scale by the SolarWorld
subsidiary Sunicon 5. Sunicon started operations in 2004, but in 2013 the recycling facilities stopped
operations after the spot market prices for solar grade silicon had collapsed6. In the United States,
where up to now no regulation for recycling of PV wastes exists, analyses on the profitability of
recycling protocols for different PV end-of-life wastes have calculated an economic viability only for
recycling of CIGS systems 7. It was clearly stated that recycling of Si PV systems results in higher cost
than profit. The study concluded that recycling of PV systems should be supported by government
policies. In 2013, it became obvious that module producers are not the main players in the PV
recycling market. Other recyclers reach a sufficient recovery rate by processing just aluminium,
copper and low-quality glass. The WEEE targets from 2018 on – requesting recovery of 85% of the
mass – address only 21% of the potential value of silicon solar panels (glass being 70-76% of the
weight, and aluminium 10-13%, according to the CABRISS market analysis). That means that valuable
materials do not necessarily have to be recycled to reach the set target rate. Since then, many
technological approaches for recycling of Si PV at industrial scale have received national and EU
funding, but no technology has been able to recover all reusable materials based on an economically
efficient business model.
To be ready for the expected PV waste streams, CABRISS supports the development of innovative
technologies by close collaboration between recyclers and users of the recovered materials.
5
Wambach et al., 2009
6
Rentzing, 2010
7
Mcdonald and Pearce, 2010
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CABRISS8 is a EU funded 3 year project (Horizon2020 Innovation Action, 06/2015 to 06/2018) and
targets a circular economy for photovoltaic products. The focus is on the development of
technologies for eco-efficient recovery of secondary materials from PV end-of-life modules and PV
production wastes, enabling the reuse for a cradle-to-cradle production of PV modules.
In short, CABRISS offers solutions on three levels:
CABRISS ensures economically viable high-value recovery of
secondary materials from:
✓ complex PV wastes (end-of-life & broken modules /cells)
✓ silicon kerf (diamond wire & block cutting)
► 5 Research institutes
► 11 Companies
► 9 EU countries
► 2 Value chains
8
www.spire2030.eu/cabriss
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Collection of PV modules
COMPANIES
Hot pressing ingots
ITO and sputtering targets
Silver flakes and silver coated copper particles
Thermal spray of silicon for free standing wafers and wafer equivalents
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3.1 Primary recycling and recovery of secondary materials from complex PV waste
Where is the problem?
Today, technologies for high-value recycling of PV wastes (targeting a recovery of all reusable
materials) are not cost-efficient. PV panels are a complex waste with a rather low density of valuable
materials, recycling cost depend on the PV technology (thin film, Si PV) and module architecture,
resale values on content and (fluctuating) resale prices of materials. Many recyclers focus therefore
on keeping cost low, treatment of end-of-life and broken modules is mostly done by removing the
aluminium frame, junction box and copper cables, and shredding the glass with attached organic
encapsulants/silicon cells and absorber layers. The organic material is then usually removed by
thermal treatment of the total mass, the glass mostly reused in low quality applications (glass wool),
and silicon is not recovered.
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3.3 Purification of recycled silicon from end-of-life PV wastes and kerf to solar grade
Where is the problem?
Silicon recovered from primary recycling of kerf has a rather low quality, and even silicon that has
been recovered from modules/broken cells cannot be used for the production of silicon wafers
without prior purification to solar grade (6N, i.e.99,9999% purity). Currently, the cost for purification
of silicon powders (from kerf) or shards (from modules recycling) to solar grade are high.
What is new?
✓ The resulting secondary silicon has a lower carbon footprint than virgin material.
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What is new?
✓ Using recycled silver will reduce cost and the demand for virgin silver in PV
production.
✓ Regenerating silver is a smaller burden for the environment
✓ Coating of copper particles reduces the overall silver consumption in PV
manufacturing. Figure 8: Silver paste
(symbolic)
Customers and markets
Customers for conductive pastes and inks made from recycled silver are the photovoltaic industry,
the (micro-)electronics sector, aviation and the automotive industry, printed electronics, producers
of displays, sensors, filters, and OLED’s (organic light emitting diodes), etc. IdtechEx estimates that
conductive inks and pastes market will reach nearly $1.7 billion in 2026 at current metal prices 10.
9
The_Silver_Institute, 2015
10
K. Ghaffarzadeh, 2017
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What is new?
✓ First manufacturing of targets based on secondary indium recycled from PV wastes.
11
SETIS Materials Information System - Indium, 2017
12
Indium Market by Product, ba Application, by Region and by Segment Forecasts, 2016
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What is new?
✓ Cost- and resource-efficient process
✓ Use of recycled silicon
✓ Reduced use of virgin silicon feedstock
✓ Double effect on reduction of carbon footprint and EPBT
(energy payback time)
13
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, 2016
* Statement Andreas Bett, deputy director of Fraunhofer ISE, at the Freiberg Silicon Days 2017
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What is new?
✓ Using recycled materials in standard production.
Creating a price advantage and providing an environmentally friendly “double green” product.
14
Osborne, Mark, 2016
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carbon footprint in
gCO2eq/kWhel EPBT in years
or % of total or in % of total
part of the system Si (mono) Si (multi) CIGS Si (mono) Si (multi) CIGS
takeback and recycling 6% 6% 12% 3% 3% 12%
inverter 12% 14% 20% 12% 12% 20%
mounting and cabling 6% 6% 12% 4% 5% 8%
frame 1% 1% 2% 0% 1% 2%
laminate 16% 17% 53% 13% 15% 58%
cell 17% 25% - 17% 26% -
wafer 40% 29% - 47% 34% -
silicon feedstock 1% 2% - 3% 4% -
total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
total (gCO2eq/kWhel or years – for EPBT) 26,7 25,7 16,8 1,3 1,2 0,7
compared to conventional PV systems -23% -26% -46% -29% -33% -44%
Table 1: CABRISS resulting carbon footprint and Energy Pay Back Time reduction*
*compared with data from Mariska de Wild-Scholten (2011)15 and partly based on
data from Forschungsstelle für Energiewirtschaft München16
15
Wild-Scholten, 2011
16
Cumulated energy and carbon footprint for relevant materials
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By 2030, the countries expected to face the highest amount of projected PV waste are China,
Germany (up to 1 million t), and Japan, followed by Italy and France3. For Germany, the 2016 IRENA-
PVPS report states that it will „be one of the first and largest markets for PV recycling technologies in
the coming years“.
Technologies that allow to retrieve sorted, high-quality, and even reusable glass panels – as targeted
in the CABRISS project – may therefore have a high significance and leverage effect: improving
resource and energy efficiency the added value of the process is simultaneously increased. This
allows to carry out the cost-intensive recovery of all valuable materials from the remaining mix of
organic materials, absorbers, conductive materials and interconnects. The innovation therefore
secures economic viability while aiming at the best possible environmental results.
Silicon kerf recycling
For recycling of silicon kerf, the situation is different. in 2016, production wastes from European
silicon wafer-based production amount to 2500 tonnes of block and wafering kerf, of which only ca.
250 tonnes are generated by cutting with diamond wire and can be recycled. This amount will
increase as in general, wafering technologies are more and more converted to using diamond wire.
The question is, to what extent the production of silicon modules will stay in Europe.
As previously mentioned, there are a variety of applications and markets for recovered silver and
indium, and for silicon. For the latter, the market price will significantly increase if it can be recycled
in a quality that is sufficient for reuse in the PV value chain. In CABRISS, several pathways are currently
tested for feasibility. They target the purification of silicon to solar grade, but also the use of cheaper
low-grade silicon for innovative wafer concepts. It remains to be seen if some of the very promising
innovative routes using hot pressing or thermal spray of silicon will result in novel solar cell
architectures that meet the requirements for quality, efficiency and long-term stability.
PV manufacturing in Europe
The market trend for PV cell and module manufacturing in 2016 shows an overall growth on global
level, with India as new big player, and with the highest share of investments of all renewable
energies. Only in Europe, investments declined (27%) which is attributed to a lack of policy support
17. The still excellent R&D infrastructure in Europe is more and more isolated from the manufacturing
basis and is in danger of being lost, as the most recent example of the Solarworld bankruptcy
(involving ca 80 researcher positions) shows.
CABRISS perspective
CABRISS aims at cost reduction for PV manufacturing and increased competitiveness of PV products
with reduced carbon footprint and EPBT – if market trends for sustainable products get more
effective, the results may have a double beneficiary effect on the competitiveness of European PV
manufacturers. The project has established a professional IP management and is expecting to exploit
the results by a range of means, including direct sales, joint ventures and licensing.
17
Jäger-Waldau, 2016
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Logistics considerations
In the past, several models for recycling of PV end-of-life wastes were discussed or tested. Often, the
motivation to recycle PV wastes was and has been driven by module manufacturers.
But recycling of complex e-wastes as PV modules,
that do not possess a high density of valuable
materials, is difficult and costly.
It has therefore been argued that recycling
facilities should be centralized and should have a
very high processing capacity (>150,000
tonnes/year18). However, it is obvious that
centralized solutions would cause high carbon
impacts by long transport distances. Recently, a
mobile recycling technology has been proposed
which could crush and separate PV modules near the installation site19.
The solution proposed in CABRISS provides that the recycling sites should be located near flat glass
manufacturers. This means that after transporting the waste to the recycler and delamination, 80-
95% of the PV waste mass will have a very
short way to the site of reuse.
The capacity of the delamination
equipment is the limiting factor and
allows to process ca. 10,000 tonnes of PV
end-of-life modules/ year in one pilot line.
While glass, aluminium, copper and
stainless-steel scrap are resold near the
recycling facility, it is possible to collect
metal-containing concentrates and refine
them at a central facility.
Fig. 16 illustrates examples of 500km
maximum driving distances related to
some of the major European flat glass
manufacturers (red icons).
The basic map shows the density of major
solar installations in function in 2016.
Within red circles, maximum transport
cost equal 250 €/tonne based on average
cost of 0.5 €/tkm in EU).
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In comparison, recycling of Si kerf is a challenging task in terms of logistics, since available quantities
are small and widely distributed. To make transport more efficient and to maintain quality and safety
standards, the kerf slurry is dried and passivated at the site of the manufacturer. Further purification
is then done at the powder production site.
The present deliverable, the project’s Public Business Plan, gives an overview of the CABRISS circular
PV value chain and connected economic aspects. More information will be presented in the
consortium’s internal intermediate and final business plans, assessing key exploitable results of the
project and their economic potential in more detail.
CABRISS strives to implement a full cradle-to-cradle PV circular economy, to exploit the challenge and
opportunity of PV wastes in Europe and globally by developing eco-efficient technologies for recycling
and reuse.
To date, CABRISS has led to a number of novel concepts for resource recycling and reuse as well as
advantages in terms of improved energy payback time and lower carbon footprint :
What is new?
✓ Economically efficient high-value recycling technology for PV panels (pilot line for thin film
panels, adapted solution for Si PV is under development): recovery of undamaged glass, silver,
silicon, indium and other rare metals.
✓ Flexible solution for recovery of silicon powders from silicon kerf.
✓ First manufacturing of targets based on secondary indium recycled from PV wastes.
✓ Reuse of recovered silver for production of conductive pastes and inks, including a resource-
saving pathway through silver-coating of copper particles.
✓ Purification of silicon to solar grade, reuse for wafer production (conventional and innovative
pathways).
✓ Cost- and resource-efficient production of ingots by hot pressing (under development).
✓ Cost- and resource-efficient production of wafers by direct thermal spraying (under
development).
✓ Novel solar cell concepts based on wafer equivalents using low-cost silicon substrates (under
development).
✓ Ongoing tests of the outputs in standard production of solar modules (thin film and Si PV).
✓ Life Cycle Analysis assessing the full cradle-to-cradle value chain available by May 2018.
Advantages
✓ Reduction of carbon footprint and EPBT
✓ Closing the loop for production of sustainable PV modules from secondary materials
✓ Reduced use of virgin silicon feedstock, silver and indium
✓ Increased eco-efficiency of solar technologies
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PERC cells Passivated Emitter and Rear Contact solar cells, alternative Si cell architecture with higher
efficiency, 10% of global c-Si cell production.
Wafer A silicon wafer is a slice of crystallised silicon (160–190 µm thick) that has been cut from an
ingot. It is the most common absorber used in PV.
WEEE Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive, the European Community directive
2012/19/EU on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) which became European
Law in February 2003. The directive set collection, recycling and recovery targets for all types
of electrical goods. Photovoltaic panels were introduced in the latest revision of 2012.
Wp The nominal power, i.e. the nameplate capacity of PV devices is measured in watt peak (or
kilowatt peak = kWp) and gives the highest power measured as output of a panel under
standardized optimum conditions.
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Cucchiella, F., D’Adamo, I. and Rosa, P. (2015) ‘End-of-Life of used photovoltaic modules: A financial analysis’,
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2015.03.076.
Cumulated energy and carbon footprint for relevant materials (retrieved June 2017) Forschungsstelle für
Energiewirtschaft München. Available at: www.ffe.de.
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, I. (2016) ‘Photovoltaics Report’, (November 2016), pp. 1–43.
doi: 26.05.2014.
Indium Market by Product, ba Application, by Region and by Segment Forecasts (2016). Available at:
www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/indium-market.
K. Ghaffarzadeh, Y. Y. and H. Z. (2017) The Conductive Inks and Paste Business: Everything is Changing.
Osborne, Mark, P.-T. (2016) Key solar manufacturing location trends in 2016. Available at: https://www.pv-
tech.org/news/key-solar-manufacturing-location-trends-in-2016.
PVCYCLE (2013) MOBILE RECYCLING UNIT FOR PV END-OF-LIFE TREATMENT. Available at:
http://www.pvcycle.de/press/mobile-recycling-unit-for-pv-end-of-life-treatment/.
SETIS Materials Information System - Indium (retrieved June 2017). Available at:
https://setis.ec.europa.eu/mis/material/indium.
Wambach, K., Schlenker, S., Müller, A. and Konrad, B. (2009) ‘A Voluntary Take Back Scheme and Industrial
Recycling of Photovoltaic Modules’, in Photovoltaics Recyling Scoping Workshop - National PV Research Center
at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Available at: https://www.bnl.gov/pv/files/PRS_Agenda/3_4_PV-Module-
RecyclingWambach.pdf.
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Yearly waste volumes .......................................................................................................................... 5
Figure 2: Si PV module architecture ................................................................................................................... 5
Figure 3: Mass balance Si PV panel waste.......................................................................................................... 6
Figure 4: Overview of the CABRISS value chain................................................................................................ 10
Figure 5: LOSER glass recovery pilot line .......................................................................................................... 11
Figure 6: Fine and agglomerated Silicon powders (photo RESITEC) ................................................................. 12
Figure 7: Recycling of silver by sector. Source: Metal focus, Silver Institute.................................................... 14
Figure 8: Silver paste (symbolic) ...................................................................................................................... 14
Figure 9: Indium target (photo RHP) ................................................................................................................ 15
Figure 10: Forecast net demand for Indium 2013, Source: Indium Corporation ............................................. 15
Figure 11: Hot pressing ingot (photo RHP)....................................................................................................... 16
Figure 12: Roof tile coated with silicon (photo PYROGENESIS) ........................................................................ 16
Figure 13: E-beam Si wafer equivalent ............................................................................................................ 17
Figure 14: Bonded Si wafer equivalent/ HET cell ............................................................................................. 17
Figure 15: EU annual solar PV market scenarios 2016-2020. Source: Solar Power Europe. ............................ 18
Figure 16: Solar PV installations (> 1.0 MW) in function in 2016* .................................................................. 22
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: CABRISS resulting carbon footprint and Energy Pay Back Time reduction* ....................................... 19
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