The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) and the Industrial Works Department are teaming up to study the feasibility of recycling used solar panels and batteries, in line with the circular economy concept.
The two parties signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday on a plan to build a pilot recycling facility after completing a two-year study.
Solar panels are used in many power generation types — farms, rooftops and floating on water — while lithium-ion batteries are installed in electric vehicles and employed in energy storage.
Patana Sangsriroujana, Egat’s deputy governor for strategy, said the study will review capacity size, location, budget, waste management and related regulations.
The Industrial Works Department said 112 tonnes of solar panels are expected to be retired in 2022. Normally a solar panel has a life cycle of 20 years.
The department sees the number of used solar panels rising to 1.55 million tonnes in 2057, in line with the current national power development plan (PDP) for 2018-37.
Under the PDP, solar power generation will increase from 3,250 megawatts now to 6,000MW in 2023 from various types of projects.
Electric vehicles in Thailand are expected to reach 1.2 million units on the road by 2036, meaning many used batteries will be retired.
Prakob Vivitjinda, the department’s director-general, said limited recycling facilities exist for solar panels and batteries globally. They include sites in Belgium, Japan and Singapore.
“For solar panels, they were adopted to generate electricity over 10 years ago, so some of the used solar panels circulating in the country will be fed into this feasibility study,” Mr Prakob said. Some recycled panels could be reused for power projects in remote areas, he said.
As of last September, on-grid solar power projects were generating 2,882MW. Some 1,750MW of total capacity was in the central region, with 626MW in the North, 465MW in the Northeast and 41MW in the South.
Egat cannot track off-grid solar power projects, as they are operated by private companies and households under independent power supply.
Mr Prakob said the planned recycling facility will also cover lead-acid batteries from internal combustion vehicles.
Thailand accumulated 1,300 tonnes of lead-acid batteries during 2015-19. Some of the used batteries were exported to overseas recycling facilities, while others will be disassembled and reused as components in other applications.
