Solar Energy: a circular model of photovoltaics (PV) and its framework conditions

The H2020 PHOTORAMA project (https://www.photorama-project.eu/) is working on a photovoltaic (PV) circular model focusing on PV waste management. It organises a half-day workshop on developments in PV circularity, its framework conditions and legal perspectives in Brussels, Belgium.

PHOTORAMA contributes to the EU Energy transition in the solar energy field, specifically it works on recycling of PV panels. The project also contributes to EU recycling and raw material recovery goals, e.g. it recovers critical and valuable metals (e.g. silver, silicon) from PV waste.

• The PHOTORAMA Energy Day will be held face-to-face in Brussels, Belgium, on the 21 June 2023.
• It is organised in the frame of the European Sustainable Energy Week.
• It will mix interactive methods (quiz, exposition of PHOTORAMA samples), presentations, and Question & Answer sessions.
• We target 30-50 participants, which are experts and stakeholders in energy and related fields, participants in EUSEW, stakeholders of PHOTORAMA and other EU funded projects in the field.

Purpose of PHOTORAMA EUSEW Energy Day

PHOTORAMA’s main objective is to increase the circularity of PV panels. Beyond developing appropriate technologies to recycle PV panels, PHOTORAMA aims to understand under which conditions and in what contexts those technologies can be introduced.[1]

At this PHOTORAMA EUSEW Energy Day we will give an update on PHOTORAMA work, as well as of related EU funded projects such as CIRCUSOL . Key issues we plan to discuss at the Energy Day include:

• What is the status of PV waste management and recycling in Europe and PHOTORAMA’s contribution to it?
• Highlights on PV waste stream, collection stage and standards for waste characterisation.
• What are the perspectives of the EU legal framework for PV waste management?
• What are the perspectives for glass recycling from PV panels?
• PV circular model: what about re-use of PV panels and recovered materials in Europe?
• What kind of framework conditions are key for making PV circularity a success: Political, Economic, Social acceptance, Technological, Environmental, and Legal/regulation[2] factors in the external environment?

[1] See our PHOTORAMA blog section for preliminary results of our stakeholder survey on awareness of PV panel related issues and recyclability, and co-creation workshops on technology aspects and framework conditions for PV recycling:

https://www.photorama-project.eu/we-asked-the-stakeholders-answered-current-knowledge-about-pv-panel-recycling-in-the-eu/

[2] See for example our blog article EU regulation pushing forward PV recycling: the WEEE directive:

https://www.photorama-project.eu/eu-regulation-pushing-forward-pv-recycling-the-weee-directive/