Photo/Illutration Recycled solar panels created by a business association based in Okayama Prefecture (Kunio Ozawa)

OKAYAMA--Local businesses in Okayama Prefecture are giving old solar panels another day in the sun through successfully recycling old panels and creating new ones. 

A solar industry association is touting the achievement as marking a major step toward fashioning a truly renewable energy model.

“We have proven that solar panels are recyclable,” said Takahisa Fujii, the chief director of the PV Reborn Association. “It was a first step toward our ultimate goal of extracting all materials from the old panels.”

Fujii and Hideyuki Sakumoto, the president of Niimi Solar Co., based in Niimi, Okayama Prefecture, demonstrated power generation using their “Reborn Panel” at a news conference held here on Sept. 15.

They said they were still working to improve the power-generating capacity of their recycled panels, which currently produce only half the power of new ones. They aim to bring the recycled panels to market in fiscal 2028.

Under Sakumoto's leadership, the PV Reborn Association was established in summer 2022 with around 120 member businesses and individuals dedicated to promoting solar panel recycling and renewable energy research.

Niimi Solar has developed solar panel disposal equipment that utilizes high-temperature water vapor.

The new technology employs steam heated to more than 600 degrees to effectively extract recyclable materials such as glass, copper, silicon, silver and aluminum. 

As the extraction process does not involve combustion, no CO2 will be emitted, according to the association.

The first prototypes of the recycled solar panels showcased at the news conference were assembled by Tamiya Manufacturing, a PV Reborn Association member, based in Nara Prefecture.

Currently, most used solar panels end up in landfill due to the technical challenges in separating individual materials tightly glued and pressed together with other components.

The volume of scrapped panels, which stood at around 2,400 tons in 2015, is expected to balloon to 800,000 tons in 2040, according to an estimate.

The rapid spread of photovoltaic power generation in Japan was prompted by the introduction of a feed-in tariff system in 2012, which requires power utilities to buy electricity generated with renewable energy sources at fixed rates set by the government.

The first generation of solar panels installed since then will reach their expected life span of 25 to 30 years in the 2030s, creating a growing trash heap of discarded panels.

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