The aging solar panels will be a major environmental challenge for China

In the next few decades, the treatment of expired solar panels is a big problem for China.

According to estimates by energy industry experts, China will face extreme problems related to solar panels over the next two decades.

By 2034 the country's aging energy panels will reach 70 gigawatts.

Lu Fang, general secretary of the China Renewable Energy Association, said the country's aging energy panels will reach 70 gigawatts by 2034. This number is 3 times higher than the size of the Three Gorges Dam - the world's largest hydroelectric project.

By 2050, these waste sheets will increase by 20 million tons, 2,000 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower.

According to the International Energy Agency, China currently owns the largest number of solar power plants in the world with a total capacity of nearly 80GW (data last year). The installation of solar panels in China is nearly double that in the US.

Nearly half of the solar panels in the country were installed last year. According to Bloomberg, industry experts also predict that new solar farms completed this year will exceed the record for 2016.

High temperatures can accelerate the aging process for solar cells.

The speed of building solar farms is fueled by the country's policy of diversifying its energy supply structure (now heavily dependent on fossil fuels such as coal and imported oil).

However, the lifespan of solar power plants is relatively short, and managers have yet to offer specific plans to handle expired solar panels. According to estimates by the US Department of Energy, the life of the control panel is between 20 and 30 years, depending on the environment in which they are used.High temperatures can accelerate the aging process for solar cells , while other negative factors, such as the weight of snow or dust storms, gradually reduce the power supply of energy panels.

Mr. Tian Min, General Manager of Nanjing Fangrun Materials, a recycling company in Jiangsu Province that specializes in collecting expired solar panels, says the solar industry is a slow-blasting bomb. He said: 'It will explode in the next 2 or 3 decades and destroy the environment, if scientific calculations are accurate. This is a large amount of waste and they are not easy to recycle '.

The solar industry is a slow explosive bomb.

A solar panel contains metals such as lead, copper and also an aluminum frame. Solar cells are made up of crystalline pure crystalline silicon under a thick plastic film to protect.

In Europe, a number of companies are reported to have developed sophisticated technology to recover more than 90 percent of materials.

China's solar power plants are mainly located in remote areas such as Gobi in Inner Mongolia. Meanwhile, most recycling plants are located in areas developed along the Pacific coast.

Transporting these bulky sheets with long distances is expensive.

Transporting these bulky sheets with long distances is expensive. Another cost is separation and disinfection of waste. This is an industrial process that not only requires a lot of labor and input power, but also releases chemicals such as acids that can harm the environment.

Tian said: 'If a recycling plant goes step by step in order to achieve a low level of pollution, their products may be more expensive than raw materials.'

The price of one kilogram of pure silicon stands at about 13 USD this year. It is estimated that in the next decade, this price will decrease by 30%. According to Tian, ​​this makes recycled silicon harder to sell. Another idea is that China can sell these used energy plates to the Middle East - where people need to install large numbers of energy panels in the desert to compensate for low productivity (due to use old energy panels).