In RETRIEVE we aim to combine PV upstream value chain organizations with beyond state-of-the-art recycling processes and techniques to improve circularity within the PV sector. RETRIEVE targets the upcycling of the components of the End of Life (EoL) solar panels, enhancing the material quality to meet current requirements for re-introduction into the PV value chain. RETRIEVE will increase the circularity and minimize the environmental impact of the PV industry by developing and demonstrating cost effective recycling technologies for the different components of a solar module; recycle glass to current PV specifications, purify production waste and EoL silicon to solar grade quality, recover silver and heavy metals, and polymer valorization with carbon capture. The final goal is to demonstrate a closed-loop recycling process where recycled glass as well as silicon is re-used in state-of-the-art solar module production, turning the EoL PV panels into sources of new raw materials for the PV manufacture industry. In addition, future PV waste streams for EoL and production waste will be forecasted, and the market potential will be evaluated. By lowering the financial burden of material recovery and increasing the value after recovery, RETRIEVE makes the overall module recycling process more profitable, and the project opens new paths for commercialization. Business cases and market introduction strategies will be developed for a selection of the processes and products.

EcoSolar envisions an integrated value chain to manufacture and implement solar panels in the most ecologic way by maximising resource efficiency, taking into account reuse of materials during production and repurposing solar panel components at end of life stage. EcoSolar will demonstrate that during the lifetime of a solar electricity producing field, individual panels can be monitored, allowing to identify defaulting panels at an early stage, replacing or repairing them and thus to increase the overall energy yield. In WP1, SINTEF&Norsun will work on recovery & reuse during silicon ingot crystallisation, addressing recovery of argon purge gas and work with Steuler on reusable crucibles. In WP2 Garbo will recover Si-kerf-loss during wafering, and with SINTEF work on potential reuse applications, like as Si-feedstock in crystallisation processes, or as resource in crucible manufacturing or lithium ion battery production. In WP3, ISC&SoliTek will look into potential for re-using process water; reducing material resources, like chemicals and silver, by smarter solar cell design, more efficient processes and recovery and reuse of chemicals; AIMEN will develop solar cell monitoring and repair for inline processing in an industrial plant, to enable remanufacturing. In WP4 Apollon will use a module design that results in reduced bill of materials, enables remanufacturing and reuse of components from modules that showed failures after assembly or have been identified as malfunctioning in operating PV installations, based on integrated diagnosis techniques for the detection of failure modes. bifa will collect data from all previous WPs to assess environmental impact of the intended innovations (WP5). Bifa will identify waste streams that are costly and hard to recycle and find opportunities to repurpose those waste products. BCC will disseminate the results and will support the partners with the exploitation and replication potential of the results (WP6).

The IBC4EU project will develop cost effective and sustainable bifacial interdigitated back contact (IBC) solar cell and module technology on pilot line level. Based on business cases from the whole value chain – ingot, wafer, cell and module – we will demonstrate that IBC technology is the most promising choice for a fast launch of GW scale PV production in the EU. Cost competitiveness not only against future heterojunction (HJT) and Tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) technology but also present-day PERC and PERC technology will be demonstrated for the polyZEBRA and POLO IBC cell designs. To reach this goal, cost-effective production equipment will be developed and eco-design approaches will be employed to reduce the need for scarce materials such as silicon metal and silver and to maintain indium-free design. Pilot lines, interlinked on all levels of production, will help to reach GW scale mass production not only on cell but also on ingot, wafer and module level until 2030. The advantage of the chosen IBC technology is that it is based on existing production technology. Thus, the project will focus on improving existing processing steps on already available equipment, introducing some novel equipment to reduce the cost of ownership, and employing Industry 4.0 solutions for predictive maintenance, quality control and traceability. The feasibility of the chosen technologies and the innovative products will be evaluated by business-related parameters as well as performance characteristics which will be tested according to the relevant standards and in demo sites. The environmental impact will be monitored closely and eco-design approaches will be used to reduce the CO2 footprint, increase the resource efficiency and recyclability and improve in terms of circularity potential.

Today’s world PV market is dominated by standard crystalline solar cells (so-called Al-BSF cells) and part of the market is shifting to PERC solar cells. The shift is obtained by introducing three additional process steps to the standard process (rear side cleaning, passivation and laser opening), and allows a gain of typically 1% absolute in efficiency. Next generation c-Si technologies should feature higher voltage solar cells with higher efficiency and less processing steps in the manufacturing, allowing for further cost reduction, both at the PV panel level and for the final cost of solar electricity. AMPERE focuses on technologies with such a potential and capitalizes on the high tech investments made in Europe over the last decade for establishing advanced manufacturing processes for crystalline silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells and modules, on the development of hardware capable of coating at high speed and low cost homogeneous materials of high electronic quality. It also bases on the unique expertise gained in production of thin film modules, and in all hardware issues related to large area coatings in production environment, which can applied for the production of SHJ cells and modules. The final goal of the project is t the setting-up of a 100 MW full-scale automated pilot line in production environment at the 3Sun fab, while preparing the next steps to 300 MW and GW scale. The project will operate with the support of full technology platforms for solar cells at CEA and the platform for advanced module technologies at MBS. It will demonstrate practically the ultra-low cost potential of such manufacturing approaches, as well as the even more impressively low solar electricity generation costs thanks to high efficiency and/or intrinsic bifaciality of the selected technologies.