What is ideal recyclable solar cell?
Marius Peters has published a perspective article “The ideal recyclable solar cell” co-authored by Christoph Brabec in Nature Reviews Chemistry. The work explores a timely and crucial question: how can we design photovoltaic technologies not only for maximum efficiency but also for true recyclability?
With solar PV reaching terawatt-scale deployment, the end-of-life management of solar modules is becoming a defining challenge for sustainable energy. This article proposes a shift in solar cell design philosophy — from focusing solely on power conversion and cost to embracing circularity as a core performance metric.
Key concepts discussed include:
- Intrinsic trade-offs between efficiency, stability, and recyclability
- The role of bonding strength, material mixing, and entropy in disassembly
- Challenges of current materials and architectures for clean separation
- A design roadmap balancing operational performance and end-of-life recovery
This perspective encourages the field to treat recyclability not as a retrofit, but as a foundational design parameter from the outset.