The brand new digital waste administration guidelines mandate that producers accumulate and retailer waste modules until 2034-35 and preserve a list on the Central Air pollution Management Board’s portal, and a scientific launch and implementing these guidelines will enable India to attain a round photo voltaic financial system, write CEEW’s Akanksha Tyagi & Neeraj Kuldeep.
2022 is a vital yr for the photo voltaic power sector in India. In the case of renewables, the nation is specializing in every little thing beneath the solar – manufacturing, deployment, and now, waste. The yr started with the Union Price range allocating an INR 19,500 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for home manufacturing of high-efficiency photo voltaic photovoltaic (PV) modules. And because the yr attracts to a detailed, the Ministry of Setting, Forest and Local weather Change (MoEFCC) introduced the foundations for managing digital waste (E-waste), bringing photo voltaic PV cells, panels and modules beneath its purview. , which will probably be efficient. from April 2023. With the notification of those guidelines, India turned the third nationwide jurisdiction worldwide, after the EU and the UK, with a devoted regulatory framework to handle photo voltaic PV module waste.
The Central Electrical energy Authority (CEA) now predicts that renewable power will substitute coal by 2026, and solar energy is main the best way. India has already commissioned 61 GW of photo voltaic capability, making it the fifth largest on this planet. With one other 44 GW of photo voltaic capability within the pipeline, India will quickly attain the high three. However what concerning the photo voltaic waste that can be produced? It’s typically assumed that photo voltaic waste solely happens after 25 years of module life. Nonetheless, numerous analyzes recommend that important quantities of module waste are generated yearly from manufacturing scrap, module damages (transportation, pure occasions), and early finish of life.
Right here, we talk about the significance of those guidelines for the photo voltaic sector and the way the business ought to put together for them.
What do the brand new photo voltaic waste guidelines imply?
The brand new E-waste administration guidelines are primarily based on the prolonged producer duty (EPR) framework that directs photo voltaic module producers for accountable waste administration of their merchandise. Producers are entities that introduce a product to the Indian market by manufacturing and promoting, distributing, rebranding, or importing. Subsequently, these guidelines place duty for waste administration on everybody from photo voltaic cell and/or module producers to solar energy plant builders who import photo voltaic PV modules.
Put together for assortment and storage
The regulation mandates that producers accumulate and retailer waste modules until 2034-35 and preserve a list on the Central Air pollution Management Board’s portal. It additionally paves the best way for obligatory recycling of waste photo voltaic cells and modules. So, producers ought to begin creating reverse logistics for their merchandise to return waste modules from shoppers and prepare storage services for waste. As well as, ultimately, producers should channel this waste for reuse, restore or recycling based on EPR targets.
Waste administration funding
The brand new photo voltaic waste guidelines come into impact in April 2023, when a good portion of future photo voltaic waste will come from India’s present photo voltaic capability. Almost definitely, producers don’t account for the price of waste administration in modules or tasks. Moreover, there isn’t any industrial recycling facility photo voltaic module waste administration, so we have no idea the entire value of assortment, storage and recycling of waste in Indian context. Within the present state of affairs, producers have to know financing mechanisms to handle their waste. This additionally requires factoring within the waste administration prices of latest photo voltaic capacities deliberate.
Use of hazardous supplies in photo voltaic cells and modules
The brand new guidelines require producers to fabricate and promote modules with out hazardous supplies equivalent to lead and cadmium or preserve the concentrations under the set limits of 0.1 and 0.01 % by weight in homogeneous type. Whereas some producers provide photo voltaic modules with out hazardous supplies, the market remains to be dominated by modules containing these metals. Subsequently, producers ought to concentrate on creating new photo voltaic cell and module applied sciences that adjust to these necessities. This may enhance the security of those merchandise and make the photo voltaic business extra sustainable.
India’s photo voltaic ambitions should additionally embrace waste
With these new guidelines on digital waste administration, the MoEFCC is sending a transparent sign to the business that the growth of fresh power in India should occur sustainably. A scientific rollout and implementation of those guidelines will enable India to attain a round photo voltaic financial system. The photo voltaic business ought to use it time to construct infrastructure, expertise and monetary capability to handle waste. Recovering strategic minerals, equivalent to copper, silicon and silver, will assist the nation construct sturdy provide chains and safe India’s photo voltaic ambitions.
– The authors, Akanksha Tyagi, a Program Affiliate, and Neeraj Kuldeep, a Senior Program Lead, on the Council on Vitality, Setting and Water (CEEW), an impartial, non-profit analysis institute.
(Edited by: CH Unnikrishnan)
First Revealed: December 31, 2022 11:20 AM THE
