Reserch and Development on Recycling and Reuse Treatment Technologies for Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Modules

With the rapid spreading of photovoltaic power generation systems in recent years, power generation by this method in Japan expanded to 1100 MW in the year 2004. Assuming that large quantities of solar batteries will become widespread, no doubt we will see an age in which existing photovoltaic power generation systems will become worn out one after another in conjunction with expanded demand. Therefore we developed the way to recycle and reuse treatment of the crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules. It was found that the silicon materials were able to be removed from the modules and to recycle to solar cells again. The electric characteristics of these recycled cells showed an enough performance again. Also, as the result of the durability test of our repaired modules, it can be expected that the lifetime of these modules is prolonged compared with used ones in the insulation performance and so on