Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV) Panel’s Waste Management – A Challenge

Over the past two decades, the global energy landscape has undergone a significant transformation, marked by a strong pivot towards renewable energy (RE) generation sources. India, the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG), has emerged as a front-runner in the global clean energy transition (CET). As of April 2025, India has achieved over 107 GW of installed solar PV capacity, progressing rapidly towards its target of 280 GW solar power generation capacity by 2030. While renewable technologies are often celebrated for their low operational carbon footprints, their life cycle impacts — especially during the de-commissioning phase — are quite often overlooked. The growing deployment of renewable energy systems, especially solar PV, brings forth an ironic paradox: technologies developed to reduce environmental harm are themselves becoming emerging sources of electronic and hazardous waste. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of waste management of solar PV panels.