The first generation of solar panels will wear out. A recycling industry is taking shape

YUMA, Ariz. — Sunlight beats down on a graveyard for dead solar panels in Yuma, Arizona, hundreds stacked in neat piles, waiting for their next life. The great majority of worn and damaged panels are still dumped in landfills. But with more and more piling up, many people know that needs to change.

These can be reused, said Adam Saghei, CEO of We Recycle Solar, and there is a market for them — clients around the world who search for refurbished panels for their affordability. The Yuma facility, he says, is like "your local thrift store that looks to upcycle."Those that don't go toward testing and resale head down a conveyor belt where glass, metals, and other materials with value are separated.

For Saghei, the inspiration for the company came in 2017. He was working in the computer electronic waste sector, seeing solar spread across warehouse roofs and wondering where it would go eventually. He realized green technology doesn't stay green once it is decommissioned or retired. By 2050, solar waste will total some 78 million tons globally, said Mool Gupta, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Virginia. The reason recycling and recovery isn't robust yet, Gupta said, is that companies struggle to justify the $30 per panel cost when it costs only $1 to send it to a landfill.

As fast as possible, Jack Groppo, professor of mining engineering at the University of Kentucky, says, people have to stop scrapping the modules. "Once the solar panels go into the landfill, they're gone unless we go back and mine the landfill," he said.

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