China Aims to Upgrade Solar Scrapping Capability as Panels Age
(Bloomberg) -- China plans to upgrade its capability to recycle older solar modules in the coming years, as massive amounts of aging equipment are set to fall out of use.
The country is aiming for “large-scale retirement of solar modules” by 2030, six government agencies including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a notice. This includes recycling 250,000 tons of them by 2027, they added.
Manufacturers will also be encouraged to increase the use of recycled components in newer products, which would make future scrapping easier, according to the notice.
The policy comes after years of record-breaking installations that have made China the dominant force in the global solar supply chain. That’s also created 1.5 million tons of modules that need to be recycled by the end of the decade, and another 20 million tons expected by 2050, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.
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