Managing Solar Waste in India

The New Delhi-based think tank, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), with the support of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), has estimated that cumulative waste from existing and projected solar capacity installations in India could reach around 600 kilo-tonnes by 2030.

With the rapid growth of India’s solar energy sector and the consequent deployment of solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies, concerns are mounting about solar waste. 

Solar waste refers to discarded solar panels and manufacturing scraps from PV panel modules. Modules can be discarded either when they reach the end of their life or after sustaining damage from activities such as transportation, handling, and installation.

Panels contain heavy metals like cadmium, lead, silver, and tellurium, which leach into soil and water when landfilled or damaged, posing environmental challenges. 

According to the CEEW report, the cumulative waste from existing and new capacity (deployed between FY24 and FY30) will reach about 600 kilo-tonnes by 2030 and about 19000 kilo-tonnes by 2050. 

To prevent environmental damage, solar waste can be recycled to recover materials such as glass, aluminium, copper, silicon, and silver through mechanical, thermal, and chemical processes. 

India’s E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, cover the management of e-waste generated from electrical and electronic equipment, including solar photovoltaic panels.

The rules mandate that developers and manufacturers store the waste generated from solar PV modules and cells in accordance with guidelines laid down by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

An online Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Portal for E-Waste management has also been made operational by the Central Pollution Control Board.

Furthermore, the Indian Government, through its different ministries, has taken many steps to promote domestic recycling capacity and circular economy practices in the country:

• The Government of India constituted committees to prepare action plans to expedite the transition from a linear to a circular economy across 11 focus areas, including Solar Panels. The MNRE had constituted a Committee on Circular Economy in Solar Panels.
• The MNRE had launched an “Innovation Challenge for Circularity in Renewable Energy Technologies – Batteries and Solar Photovoltaic” to support research and innovation in recycling, second-life applications, and circular design of solar modules and batteries under the Renewable Energy Research and Technology Development (RE-RTD) programme.
• The Department of Science and Technology (DST) issued a Call for Proposals on “Recovery and Recycling of End-of-Life Solar PV Panels/Modules” to develop economically viable recycling processes and equipment through academia–industry partnerships.
• The Ministry of Mines (MoM) launched a recycling incentive scheme with an outlay of Rs. 1500 crore under the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM) to develop domestic capabilities for recovering critical minerals from e-waste, lithium-ion battery waste, and end-of-life vehicle components, thereby supporting circular economy practices in clean-energy supply chains.

Efficient management of solar waste requires a comprehensive framework that guides collection, recycling, reuse, and sets material-specific recovery targets. 

Additionally, efforts to encourage innovation and the research and development of recycling technologies need to be ramped up, along with capital investments.