The solar industry is growing rapidly. 📈
Various key players are emerging being involved in producing and establishing solar PV modules. The demand is increasing and we all know: Solar energy will be the key driver to finally get fossile energy out of the business. 🌞
In 2022, the EU saw an increase in solar capacity of 41% compared to 2021, roughly 41.4GW, expecting more than 50 GW deployment in 2023.
https://lnkd.in/etFfBzDx
This is a huge number of solar modules and it raises concerns about life cycle issues- what to do with out worn panels which are not any longer fulfilling their duties in a performant and clean way?
It is obvious that this has to be addressed by by a increased circularity to regain ressources of modules which have been put out of service to reduce waste related to these.
♻️This is where reycling comes into play. By separating materials, new devices can be created without the need for new, rare raw resources- up to 95% can be recovered today.
Companies like Solar Cycle, Veolia or PV Cycle have specialized in doing so.
💡 However, by recycling, the life time of a panel comes to an end and with it, its value as an asset. By prolongating its life time, the assets value over time furtherly increases, looking at the amount of energy produced over time per device.
💡 This is the GE4A approach. By giving each module a trackable identity, its life time and value can be traced over time, evaluating operational data, revenue, composition, location, and more. A module which looses efficiency will not be brought into recycling, but refurbished to a point at which is enabled to be furtherly efficient enough to contribute to the grids. The digilalization of enegry.
This traceability also enables tracking, analyzing and optimizing operation over a longer time, than by just artificially ending its life time too early.
By the help of AI, predictions can be made to look for optimal usage and operation, improve maintenance and planning.
For operators and other stakeholders, this opens up new business models and new economic revenues- like energy as a service.
♻️After having finally reached its end of life, reycling facilities will benefit from the extended identity information and optimize recycling processes in a way, never seen before leading to highly pure raw materials.
💯 The GE4A (https://www.ge4a.com) approach of prolongating the solar module life cycle brings extended information and traceability, by factors more revenue per module, reduces waste and energy during the life time of a module and thus makes energy production more sustainable. Stakeholders will benefit from a higher and transparent RoI, increased transparency and trust as well as a maximum of efficiency during the fully circular life cycle.
ᴛʜᴇ ғᴜᴛᴜʀᴇ ᴏғ ᴇɴᴇʀɢʏ ɪs sᴜsᴛᴀɪɴᴀᴃʟᴇ. ᴀɴᴅ ᴃʀɪɢʜᴛ