China improves photovoltaics (PV) with first 100% recycled panel

Trinasolar has used 37 recycling technologies to create the world’s first photovoltaic module made entirely from discarded panels.
Chinese company Trinasolar, specializing in the production of solar panels, photovoltaic power systems and energy storage solutions, has unveiled what it claims to be ‘the world’s first fully recycled crystalline silicon module’. It is a solar panel with an efficiency of 20.7% and an output power of more than 645W.

Gao Jifan, Chairman and CEO of Trinasolar and Director of the Central Research and Development Institute, said that the production of the world’s first fully recycled PV module is a demonstration of Trinasolar’s ??determination to promote sustainable development in the photovoltaic industry and contribute to the global energy transition.
Trinasolar has successfully recycled all high-value material components of solar panels. This was achieved through a variety of techniques (Trinasolar has patented 37 recycling technologies to do so) that allow for the separation and reuse of not only silicon and aluminum, but also other valuable materials such as silver. These include the use of interlayer separation reagents, chemical etching technology, wet chemical silver extraction technology, and others.

The recycled PV module uses n-type TOPCon technology. This type of panel has fewer problems with manufacturing defects than the more common P-type panels on the market and has greater resistance to degradation caused by light and temperature.