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Article
Design and Optimization of Photovoltaics Recycling Infrastructure
Environmental Science and Technology
  • Jun-Ki Choi, University of Dayton
  • Vasilis Fthenakis, Columbia University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2010
Abstract

With the growing production and installation of photovoltaics (PV) around the world constrained by the limited availability of resources, end-of-life management of PV is becoming very important. A few major PV manufacturers currently are operating several PV recycling technologies at the process level. The management of the total recycling infrastructure, including reverse-logistics planning, is being started in Europe. In this paper, we overview the current status of photovoltaics recycling planning and discuss our mathematic modeling of the economic feasibility and the environmental viability of several PV recycling infrastructure scenarios in Germany; our findings suggest the optimum locations of the anticipated PV take-back centers. Short-term 5−10 year planning for PV manufacturing scraps is the focus of this article. Although we discuss the German situation, we expect the generic model will be applicable to any region, such as the whole of Europe and the United States.

Inclusive pages
8678-8683
ISBN/ISSN
0013-936X
Comments

Permission documentation on file.

Publisher
American Chemical Society
Peer Reviewed
Yes
Citation Information
Jun-Ki Choi and Vasilis Fthenakis. "Design and Optimization of Photovoltaics Recycling Infrastructure" Environmental Science and Technology Vol. 44 Iss. 22 (2010)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jk_choi/71/