Overview of life cycle assessment of recycling end-of-life photovoltaic panels: A case study of crystalline silicon photovoltaic panels

Crystalline silicon (C–Si) photovoltaic (PV) modules are currently reaching the End-of-life (EOL) stage, and the environmental impact of recycling PV is of great concern. The life cycle assessment (LCA) of EOL PV modules is becoming a hotspot. This study summarizes the research framework and common tools used in LCA and describes the C–Si PV panel structure configuration and recycling technical routes of PV modules. It also compares the impacts of landfilling, downcycling, and upcycling on six impact categories (climate change, terrestrial acidification, human toxicity, fossil resource scarcity, water eutrophication, and marine eutrophication). Results showed that the environmental benefits of upcycling is higher than that of downcycling and landfilling in cradle to cradle. Significant differences exist between different studies under the same scenario, with differences of up to 99.86%. It can be found that the transportation process and power consumption have a significant impact on the environment and resources based on the contribution analysis and sensitivity analysis. Meanwhile, the remanufacturing of PV panels has an obvious environmental value. The results also showed that through improvement analysis, the optimization of the electricity structure and the improvement of recycling technology and efficiency are of great significance for recycling PV modules, the environment, and sustainable development. Finally, the challenges and prospects of LCA methods are pointed out, especially in industries with complex and emerging EOL PV panel recycling processes.