VOA新闻杂志2023--More Companies Seek to Recycle Solar Panels

More Companies Seek to Recycle Solar Panels²

Many plans designed to deal with climate change depend on the use of clean energy from the sun, or solar power. But the equipment necessary for solar power sometimes gets damaged or wears out. These solar panels often end up as waste in landfills.

A business based in Yuma, Arizona, is trying to deal with what its founders³ call a tsunami⁴ of solar waste. The company is called We Recycle Solar.

Large amounts of waste

Workers move large numbers of solar panels with special machines, then lift each out by hand to begin separating by maker⁵ and model. Some panels only have a few cracks in their glass.

These panels can be reused, said company chief Adam Saghei.

The panels that do not go to testing and resale instead go to a special area where glass, metals, and other materials with value are separated.

Solar panels are built to survive many years of bad weather, so it is difficult to take them apart.

Separating the glass without it breaking, for example, is difficult. But We Recycle Solar uses special robotic devices that can do the work successfully.

Some of the highest value materials in solar panels are copper⁶, silver, aluminum⁷, glass, and crystalline silicon⁸.

For Saghei, the idea for the company came in 2017. He was working in the computer electronic waste sector⁹. He saw solar panels spread across roofs and wondered where the panels would go in the future. He said he realized that green technology does not stay green once it is no longer being used.

Copper is one metal the recycling process produces, said Dwight Clark, director of recycling technology at We Recycle Solar. Clark said there is not a lot of copper in each solar panel¹. But when the company recycles around 4500 kilograms of solar panels in an hour, the company can get over a hundred kilograms of copper.

The future

By 2050, solar panel waste will total some 78 million tons worldwide, said Mool Gupta of the University of Virginia. The reason recycling and recovery is not very strong yet, Gupta said, is that companies do not want to pay the $30 per panel cost when it costs only $1 to send it to a landfill.

Garvin Heath is a renewable energy expert at the U.S. Department of Energy. He said the cost to recycle should not be more than the cost to put solar panels in landfills. He said consumers should not have to pay anything and recycling businesses should not suffer financial losses.

Other companies are starting to get into the business.

Solarcycle, a new company based in Odessa, Texas, raised $30 million earlier this year. And Solarpanelrecycling.com is connected to electronics¹⁰ recycler PowerHouse Recycling.

The European Union has rules that require recycling of electronic waste under its Waste Electrical and Electronic Waste Directive (WEEE).

Market researcher Visiongain estimates the global market for solar panel recycling at $138 million for last year and growing fast.

Jack¹¹ Groppo of the University of Kentucky says people have to stop sending solar panels to the landfill as soon as possible. "Once the solar panels go into the landfill, they're gone unless we go back and mine the landfill," he said.

Groppo estimates that in 20 years people will mine landfills to get valuable materials in the solar panels. But he said it makes more sense to separate the panels at their retirement¹² instead.

The Yuma facility can process 7,500 panels in a single day. As of early June, it estimates more than 650,000 tons of carbon dioxide waste production have been avoided. It is reusing about 60 percent of the panels that come in.

The company plans to open another recycling center next to a large solar manufacturer in the southeastern part of the country.

For now, solar recycling companies are still looking for a way to make money. But Gupta said these profitability¹³ issues are temporary. Researchers are hard at work on solving them, he said.

He added, "Too many lives are lost to pollution and solar is one of the top solutions."

Words in This Story

panel – n. a flat piece of equipment that uses the sun's light or heat to create electricity

recycle – v. to make something new from (something that has been used before)

landfill – n. a system in which waste materials are buried under the ground

1 panel   

n.面，板，专门小组，控制板，仪表盘

参考例句：

• The unusual control panel on the walls caught our attention.墙上不同寻常的控制板引起了我们的注意。
• The panel of judges included several well-known writers.评判小组中包括几位知名作家。

2 panels   

镶板( panel的名词复数 )； 面； （门、墙等上面的）嵌板； 控制板

参考例句：

• One of the glass panels in the front door was cracked. 前门的一块方玻璃破裂了。
• Make sure the panels are treated with a wood preservative. 确保镶板用木材防腐剂处理过。

3 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

4 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

5 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

6 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

7 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

8 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

9 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

10 electronics   

n.电子器件，电子学，电子技术

参考例句：

• About 45000 people worked in electronics in Scotland.苏格兰约有4.5万人在电子行业工作。
• He wants to brush up his knowledge of electronics.他想温习他的电子学知识。

11 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

12 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

13 profitability   

n.赢利

参考例句：

• These costs will impact on our profitability. 这些费用会影响到我们的利润。
• A product manager is responsible for product profitability. 产品经理对产品的盈利状况负责。