Sustainability Impact Evaluation of the Recycling of End-of-Life Crystalline Silicon Solar Photovoltaic Panel Waste in South Korea

Soonho Kwon, Hae Jong Kim, Samyeon Kim and Sung Joo Hong ()
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Soonho Kwon: College of Law, Public Administration and Police, Kunsan National University, Gunsan-si 54150, Jeonbuk, Republic of Korea
Hae Jong Kim: Department of Carbon Convergence Engineering, Jeonju University, Jeonju-si 55069, Jeonbuk, Republic of Korea
Samyeon Kim: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jeonju University, Jeonju-si 55069, Jeonbuk, Republic of Korea
Sung Joo Hong: Department of Carbon Convergence Engineering, Jeonju University, Jeonju-si 55069, Jeonbuk, Republic of Korea

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 2, 1-11

Abstract: The end-of-life (EoL) management of solar panel waste has emerged as an important issue related to first-generation solar panels in South Korea, which have already entered their retirement stage. In this study, the sustainability impacts of three scenarios for recycling EoL solar panels, namely mechanical recycling (MR), chemical recycling (CR), and thermal recycling (TR), were investigated, and their environmental and economic benefits were evaluated using the life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) method, with landfilling as the reference scenario. The results obtained showed a high global warming potential (GWP) as well as acidification for MR owing to the additional burden of transportation and industrial processes associated with MR. For CR, the use of chemicals and subsequent landfilling resulted in approximately 4.7 times higher terrestrial eco-toxicity than was observed for the landfilling scenario. Further, the GWP of TR was approximately 1.5 times higher than that of CR owing to its high energy consumption. However, its environmental burden was generally lower than that of MR and CR. The results of this study, which capture the current situation of EoL PV panels in South Korea, can be employed to facilitate the establishment of regulations that ensure sustainable management in this regard.

Keywords: crystalline silicon solar panels; end-of-life; life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA); solar panel recycling; solar photovoltaics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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