Europe Solar Panel Recycling Market - Forecasts from 2021 to 2026

The European solar panel recycling market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.97% from an initial value of US$41.027 million in 2020 to reach a market size of US$128.583 million in 2026. The market is expected to surge in the coming years, due to the increasing solar capacity in the region, and increasing solar panel waste volume in countries like France, the UK, and Germany. The region has been making stringent regulations regarding the wastage of solar panel material, which is expected to be one of the major factors, driving the market. According to the European Union, 90% of the solar panels in the region can be fully recycled. The European Union laws also state that the recycling of solar panels is necessary and mandatory. The union has set up a target of 85% recovery rate, and the overall preparation for recycling and reuse target has been around 80%, in the next few years. Moreover, recycling solar panels in the region is also a major factor in job creation. Under the EU’s WEEE directive, the financing and set-up of “take back and recycling” schemes for solar inverters and panels have been mandatory. Moreover, in the year 2020, the EU had stated that the ratio between solar panels reaching their life end and the solar panels installed, would be lesser than 1%. But the ratio is expected to surge to 40%, by the year 2040. This is expected to be one of the major factors that are driving the industries towards the development of novel and advanced recycling facilities and processes. These trends are expected to have a positive impact on the market, during the forecast period.

Increase in solar capacity.

The market is expected to surge in the coming years, due to the increase in solar capacity, across the region. According to the data given by the European Union, the EU member states installed around 18.2 GW of solar capacity in the year 2020, with an increase of approx. 11% over the 16.2 GW, as compared to the year 2019. Germany has been the biggest solar market in the region. Netherlands, France, and Italy are also making significant developments in the market. With the rise in solar capacity and installations, there has been a surge in the growth of recycling processes and facilities, across the region. The EU had estimated that the installed solar capacity should reach around 700 GW by the year 2030. This means that the region is expected to experience substantial scale return of the used solar panels, which would need to be dealt with systematically and cleanly that increases economic viability and reduces environmental impacts. According to Remondis, the German waste management company, most of the modules that were put into the waste collection had been disposed of, as of the year 2020. The region has been making significant developments to enhance its solar recycling capabilities. For instance, in February 2020, PV Cycle, a non-profit solar panel recycling body, stated that it had collected around 5,000 tons of solar modules in France, out of which 94.7% had been expected to be recycled. The EU panel firm predicted that 50,000 tons of solar modules are expected to be recycled in France, by the year 2030. Moreover, EU-funded programs like Cabriss and Circusol had been established to formalize the reuse and remanufacturing of value chains in the region’s PV industry. These developments are expected to have a positive impact on the market, during the forecast period.

By type of solar panel, the European solar panel recycling market is segmented into silicon-based, and thin-film based panels. The European solar panel recycling market is expected to grow at a significant pace owing to the maximum number of the installed base of solar farms, which leads to a large number of end-of-life solar panels in the region. The presence of a large quantity of these panels is projected to increase solar panel waste, which in turn, will accelerate the demand for solar panel recycling during the forecast period. The silicon-based solar panels are estimated to hold a dominant market share in 2019 owing to the large number of installations of these towers in the region.

SEGMENTATION:

• BY TYPE
• Silicon Based
• Thin Film Based
• BY RECYCLING MATERIAL
• Glass
• Metal
• Others
• BY COUNTRY
• The United Kingdom
• Germany
• France
• Italy
• Others