Published Paper Details:

India largely depend on coals based thermal power, but now world is moving toward renewable energy as coal extinction and over exploitation. Solar energy has the maximum potential to be exploited to the maximum level to full fill the energy demands of the world. The Sun has been worshiped as a life-giver to our planet. About 5,000 trillion kWh energy/year is over India's land area with most parts receiving 4-7 kWh per sq. m/day. Solar energy has become a leading solution to meet the increasing energy demand of growing populations. Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is an efficient option to generate electricity from solar energy and mitigate climate change. The development and growth of solar photovoltaics has had a positive impact on energy system decarbonization, but end-of-life solar panels might become toxic waste, if not properly disposed. Presently in India, approx. 200,000 tons of solar photovoltaic (PV) waste are expected to be produced by 2030 and 1.8 million tons by 2050 by which time solar waste could grow to 60 million tons globally (Rathore et al, 2022). Solar waste recently included in the category of electrical and electronic equipment waste to restrict the negative impact of continual development. The present focus is only on increasing the efficiency of solar PV panels without considering the impact of waste on the environment. The solar waste management and recovery of components from waste, would prevent the leaching of various toxic elements into the environment. PV module recycling is a multistep process involving dismantling, delamination, and metal recovery. Several techniques are available to recover the intrinsic components in the PV modules, like chemical delamination, yield undamaged solar cells, which could be reused directly or with refurbishing. Mechanical and combustion delamination, on the contrary, yields damaged solar cells that are treated electrochemically or metallurgically to recover the metals. There is a need to critically investigate & manage the disposal and recycling of solar panels waste in a scientific manner to minimize the negative environmental impacts. This paper addresses handling and recycling of solar waste, which will be present in large quantities after 25 years and explain multiple adopted technologies to recycle solar waste and technological advancement achieved while recycling photovoltaic waste.