As the world increasingly turns to solar power to combat climate change, the need for solar materials is dramatically increasing. Although PV technology provides renewable electricity generation, the production of suitable materials and disposal of modules at their end of life present significant environmental challenges. PV modules are composed of a wide variety of materials, including glass, aluminum, copper, and silver, as well as various types of plastics and adhesives. These materials are tightly bonded together and difficult to separate, making recycling a key challenge.

The traditional method of PV module recycling involves shredding the modules and separating the materials using a combination of mechanical and chemical processes. This process can be effective in recovering some of the valuable materials, such as silicon and aluminum, but it also produces a large amount of waste and consumes a significant amount of energy. To address these challenges, new methods of PV module recycling are being developed that focus on disassembly and reuse rather than shredding and separation. Designing PV modules for disassembly makes it easier to recover valuable materials.

The broken PV module on display in this exhibition sends a powerful message about the importance of recycling. As the world transitions to the urgently needed sustainable energy future, PV will become an integral part of our buildings. Like with any other building material, we must address the challenge of solar materials separation today and develop new, innovative solutions to ensure the long-term sustainability of our society.

This module is one of the prototypes developed during the Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) Workshop at ETH Zurich, during which the students had the opportunity to freely assemble, glue, cut, laminate, solder and play with these materials, while creating new future visions for solar applications.