Recycling of Thin Film Solar Cell Modules — LCA and ECO2 Case Study

Abstract

Today, solar energy is seen as one of the auspicious renewable energy sources. At the beginning of solar cells history in the 1950th, solar cells were labeled as adverse due to their high energy payback time and low efficiency, therefore their application were limited to aeronautic and astronautic fields as well as to small applications such as pocket calculators. Recent developments resulted in the improvement of the energy efficiency of solar cell modules, as a result, the solar cell modules became more competitive to other renewable energy resources. In this paper the EU funded project SENSE is presented, which aim is to develop a recycling system for thin film solar cells. An accompanying LCA study shows the environmental impact of the considered solar cell systems