The paper shows substantial benefits to recycling perovskite solar panels, though they are still in the commercial development stage, said Fengqi You, the Roxanne E.
“When perovskite solar panels reach the end of their useful life, how do we deal with this kind of electronic waste?” said You, also a faculty fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability.
Recycling them enhances their sustainability, as the recycled perovskite solar cells could bring 72.6% lower primary energy consumption and a 71.2% reduction in carbon footprint, according to the paper, “Life Cycle Assessment of Recycling Strategies for Perovskite Photovoltaic Modules,” co-authored by Xueyu Tian, a doctoral student at Cornell Systems Engineering, and Samuel D.
The best recycled perovskite cell architecture could see an energy payback time of about one month, with a carbon footprint as low as 13.4 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent output per kilowatt hour of electricity produced.