KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 8 (Bernama) -- There’s a warehouse in Malaysia's east coast where over 15,000 units of defective solar panels sit in storage.
The warehouse belongs to ERS Energy Sdn Bhd, one of Malaysia’s largest solar energy solutions providers. It’s trying to do the responsible thing by not chucking the panels in dumpsites.
“Due to the current lack of recycling initiatives for solar panels, all faulty and damaged solar panels are in storage at our own cost until an environmentally sound solution becomes available,” says Angeline Teoh, ERS Energy’s Communications and Sustainability associate director. “We don’t want to see more waste ending up at our already inundated landfills."
In fact, she says, the company is already using a third party warehouse to store the multiplying number of defective photovoltaic (PV) panels.
There are several reasons as to why solar panel recycling is virtually unheard of in Malaysia. One of them is because it requires bespoke technology. Parts of the panel are more valuable than others but more difficult to recover, thus requiring sophisticated extraction methods.
Without a steady supply of decommissioned panels, it also makes the endeavour a costly but unprofitable one to investors. Other sources of hesitancy are simply logistical costs.
This is a problem globally.
“Major barriers include the unclear economic profit for recyclers when considering costs needed for collection and transportation,” says Ute Collier, an acting director at the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). IRENA is an intergovernmental agency for energy transformation.
“Currently, most of the end-of-life solar PV are going to landfills, not following circular economy principles for reusing or recycling.”
However, the fact remains that solar energy use is soaring and Malaysia is riding that wave. The solar waste glut is definitely coming, so what do we do with it?
Good quality solar PV panels last between 25 and 30 years.
The country may have started implementing solar into its energy landscape in 2011, but its usage of renewable energy (RE) sources existed long before that.
“Malaysia started utilising solar energy on a wider scale in the early 2000s. Smaller scale usage of solar existed prior to that, but mostly at an individual level,” says Dhana Raj Markandu, a senior analyst with Malaysia’s Institute of Strategic & International Studies (ISIS).
He has had over 20 years of engineering and management experience in the country’s energy sector.
“Malaysia started utilising solar energy on a wider scale in the early 2000s. Smaller scale usage of solar existed prior to that, but mostly at an individual level,” says Dhana Raj Markandu, a senior analyst with Malaysia’s Institute of Strategic & International Studies (ISIS).
He has had over 20 years of engineering and management experience in the country’s energy sector.
The math indicates that the PV panels installed some 20 years ago would have now reached the end of their lifespan - but that is only a small part of the equation.
Malaysia is about to embark on a journey that will see it exponentially increase its usage of PV panels.
The math indicates that the PV panels installed some 20 years ago would have now reached the end of their lifespan - but that is only a small part of the equation.
Malaysia is about to embark on a journey that will see it exponentially increase its usage of PV panels.
In August of 2023, the country launched the National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR) in its bid to achieve net-zero emissions by 2025.
To meet that objective, coal, which makes up 26.4 percent of the current energy mix, is to be almost completely phased out by 2045.
Instead, the installed capacity of RE will be increased from 25 percent to 70 percent by 2050. The rest of the mix will be made up of natural gas.
“Solar will make up nearly 60 percent of the total power installed capacity and 40 percent of the total generation mix,” Malaysia’s Energy Transition and Water Transformation Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof tells Bernama in an interview.
To achieve this, Malaysia will need to install 59GW of solar PV panels by 2050, as stated by NETR.
IRENA predicts in its 2016 report that by 2050, the world would end up with some 78 million tonnes of solar panel waste.
Of that figure, Malaysia could be dealing with around 190,000 to 300,000 tonnes of solar PV waste.
However, that is a conservative estimate as IRENA’s calculations were made before the launch of the NETR and its recent massive push for solar energy use.
Bernama did a rough calculation of the amount of solar panel waste that might be generated if the country installed 59GW worth of solar capacity, as per the NETR.
If going by the typical 360W PV panel which weighs around 20kg, the eventual figure would be around 3.28 million tonnes.
But even that is still a conservative calculation. It operates on the assumption that all solar panels installed would be generating electricity till the end of its life.
The truth is, most PV panels won’t even live up to their projected lifespan.
These panels typically degrade at a rate of 0.5 percent a year but many factors can cause them to wear out earlier than they should.
In Malaysia, PV panels tend to age out faster due to thermal degradation. This is a condition where the country’s tropical climate accelerates the deterioration of solar panel components and ultimately, the panel’s overall performance.
The truth is, most PV panels won’t even live up to their projected lifespan.
These panels typically degrade at a rate of 0.5 percent a year but many factors can cause them to wear out earlier than they should.
In Malaysia, PV panels tend to age out faster due to thermal degradation. This is a condition where the country’s tropical climate accelerates the deterioration of solar panel components and ultimately, the panel’s overall performance.
“Solar panels in Malaysia degrade at a rate of 1-2 percent each year. Degradation here happens very fast because we are located close to the Equator.
“The heat Malaysia gets is very strong and this quickens the rate at which the solar panels degrade,” says Dr Norasikin Ahmad Ludin, the Deputy Director of the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
Heat is not the only thing that affects solar panel efficiency.
Erratic weather as well as the quality and condition of, and location in which panels are installed can also cause inconsistencies in power generation.
This is known as intermittency, and it can greatly affect the future reliability of solar panels.
“Solar panels in Malaysia degrade at a rate of 1-2 percent each year. Degradation here happens very fast because we are located close to the Equator.
“The heat Malaysia gets is very strong and this quickens the rate at which the solar panels degrade,” says Dr Norasikin Ahmad Ludin, the Deputy Director of the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).
Heat is not the only thing that affects solar panel efficiency.
Erratic weather as well as the quality and condition of, and location in which panels are installed can also cause inconsistencies in power generation.
This is known as intermittency, and it can greatly affect the future reliability of solar panels.
Even in average sunlight conditions, a 360W panel may operate closer to 300W. When intermittency issues are added to the mix, users may find themselves having to replace PV panels much earlier than expected.
Norasikin pointed out that the degradation is accelerated when poor quality panels are used.
“Performance can decline at a rate of more than two percent per year. In five years’ time the panels would have degraded to the point of generating less than ideal energy output,” she says.
Rajen Mohan, whose company refurbishes and repairs solar PV panels, agrees that the quality of panels today are not what they used to be - especially those meant for large scale industrial use.
“Back then, solar panels had smaller power generation capacity but were relatively more expensive as they were made with higher quality materials and the demand wasn't as high.
“Today, solar panels have higher power capacity and better power efficiency, thanks to rapid technological advancement. But as prices go down to cater to demand, material quality follows suit,” says the CEO and founder of CREPS Sdn Bhd.
Rajen says an efficiency decline of up to two percent a year can adversely affect companies that sign energy transmission deals like the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
“These companies are bound by regulations that require them to fulfil the energy supply demand signed under agreements like the PPA.
“So when efficiency drops to below 85 percent they will have to replace the panels in order to keep up with energy demand. This might mean changing those panels every five years,” he says.
There are times, though, when new PV panels ‘die’ even before they are even used.
Manufacturer defects or cracks due to mishandling or movement during transport can render brand new panels dead on arrival, as is routinely experienced by solar energy solution providers like ERS Energy.
“Some of the panels are faulty due to manufacturer defect or are damaged due to contractor mishandling as well as exposure to site condition,” says Teoh. “Unfortunately, we cannot return the defective and damaged panels to manufacturers as there are no Extended Producer Responsibility or take-back policies in place.”
One question needs to be answered first before deciding on the handling of solar panel waste.
What kind of waste are dead solar panels?
Some countries classify them as e-waste, but only a small part of PV panels is electronic. The rest are mostly plastic, silicon and glass - all of which require different handling and disposal methods.
“In Malaysia, we have yet to categorise what type of waste it is, but the agencies responsible are in discussion about it,” Saiful Hakim Abdul Rahman, the director of strategic planning at Malaysia’s Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) tells Bernama.
However, he says, SEDA is in the midst of coming up with guidelines on the handling of solar panel waste.
These guidelines are necessary while the government works out corresponding regulations to prevent mishandling of decommissioned panels.
Solar panels have junction boxes that contain valuable metals, but they are vastly more difficult to extract than the aluminium framing it.
“In Malaysia, we have yet to categorise what type of waste it is, but the agencies responsible are in discussion about it,” Saiful Hakim Abdul Rahman, the director of strategic planning at Malaysia’s Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) tells Bernama.
However, he says, SEDA is in the midst of coming up with guidelines on the handling of solar panel waste.
These guidelines are necessary while the government works out corresponding regulations to prevent mishandling of decommissioned panels.
Solar panels have junction boxes that contain valuable metals, but they are vastly more difficult to extract than the aluminium framing it.
Rajen says when a panel is disassembled and stripped of the materials that are often sought after by interested parties, a substantial amount still remains.
“They leave about 85 percent of the materials because they don’t know what to do with them. If you remove the cables, the scrap metal company will take them. But what happens to the other components that they don’t want to take, like the panel’s module? They’ll throw it away,” he says.
“This is why we have to figure out a proper process to deal with them first. We don’t want the discarded parts to be left behind and later sent to the landfills.”
-- BERNAMA
This story is supported by Macaranga and Klima Action Malaysia.
