Recently, Trina Solar's Central Research Institute announced that it has successfully manufactured the world's first fully recycled photovoltaic module through recycling the materials recovered from dismantling waste photovoltaic modules.
After testing, this piece of golden size TOPCon 210N-66 recycled solar panel has a conversion efficiency of up to 20.7% and a power of more than 645W, marking a breakthrough in the recycling and recycling of waste solar panels.
Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and the General Office of the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Large-scale Equipment Renewal in Key Energy Fields", pointing out that it is necessary to promote the development of photovoltaic module recycling and reuse technology, support the development of low-cost green disassembly of photovoltaic modules based on physical and chemical methods, and high-value component efficient and environmentally friendly separation technology and complete equipment.
Gao Jifan, Chairman and CEO of Trina Solar and President of the Central Research Institute, pointed out that the smooth roll-off of the world's first fully recycled solar panel is a vivid practice of Trina Solar's innovation to promote the development of new quality productivity, and it is also Trina Solar's responsibility to promote the circular economy and green development of the photovoltaic industry, and contribute Trina's strength to global energy transformation and green development.
Trina Solar dismantles discarded photovoltaic modules and recycles broken silicon wafers. It uses a self-developed cleaning agent to remove bulk/surface impurities, and uses N-type single crystal direct-pull technology combined with a low-temperature impurity gettering process to obtain silicon wafers with performance close to that of the original. By collaborating with upstream and downstream partners, the silver powder recycled from discarded photovoltaic modules is further used to prepare the front fine grid slurry. By integrating high-resistance dense grid technology, the silver paste and silicon wafers exhibit good process characteristics during the printing process. The glass and aluminum frames recycled from discarded photovoltaic modules are formed through secondary melting, realizing the preparation of the first fully recycled photovoltaic module.
Trina Solar has attached great importance to the treatment and recycling of waste photovoltaic modules more than ten years ago. In 2012, the European Union promulgated the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), requiring that 85% of waste modules must be collected in a centralized manner, and 80% of the materials must be recycled. Trina Solar, with the direction of green environmental protection, low cost and high yield, combined with the existing advantages and conditions in the photovoltaic industry chain, carried out research on the disassembly and recycling of waste photovoltaic modules. It has developed a variety of technical routes such as physical methods, thermal decomposition methods, and chemical methods, and continuously improved technologies such as automated disassembly, laminate separation, cell silver removal, and silicon material cleaning and purification.
At present, Trina Solar has applied for 37 patents in module recycling, including 11 authorized and published invention patents. At the same time, it has led and participated in the preparation of 3 module recycling-related standards, 1 key national standard, and undertaken 2 national key special projects on circular economy. For a long time, Trina Solar has insisted on developing advanced technology routes for the recycling and reuse of waste photovoltaic modules, constantly leading technological innovation, pursuing excellence, and achieving the birth of the world's first fully recycled photovoltaic module, injecting new impetus into the high-quality development of the photovoltaic industry chain.
Trina Solar is one of the vice-chairman units of the Photovoltaic Committee of the China Green Supply Chain Alliance (ECOPV), and has always supported and promoted the healthy development of the ECOPV photovoltaic recycling industry, and actively responded to the ECOPV's advocacy of "promoting the innovative research and application of environmentally friendly, new photovoltaic products and materials". Under the leadership of the Photovoltaic Recycling Industry Development Cooperation Center of the China Green Supply Chain Alliance, Trina Solar led and undertook this project, and worked with partners in the Green Supply Chain Alliance to complete the preparation of the first fully recycled photovoltaic module.
