Solar waste management in India

IN NEWS:

• The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has estimated that the global photovoltaic waste will touch 78 million tonnes by 2050. India is expected to be one of the top five photovoltaic-waste creators.  

INDIA AND SOLAR ENERGY:

• India has set an ambitious target of installing 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by the year 2022, which includes 100 GW from solar.
• Renewables, excluding hydro, account for 100 GW (approx. 25.9%) of India's total installed capacity of about 386 GW. Solar energy contributes to 44 percent of this energy mix.
• At present, India has the 5^th largest solar installed capacity. Installed capacity of solar energy in India has increased by more than 18 times from 2.63 GW in March 2014 to 47.66 GW in October 2021.
• India now has a manufacturing capacity of 3GW for solar cells and 15GW for modules and plans to create an additional manufacturing capacity of 25 gigawatts (GW) each of solar cells and modules, and 10GW of wafers by April 2023.

SOLAR WASTE:

• A recent International Energy Agency (IEA) report states that by the end of 2040, India will represent 30% of the world's solar installed capacity.
• The IRENA’s official projections assert that large amounts of annual waste are anticipated by the early 2030s and could total 78 million tonnes by the year 2050. By then, the world will be generating about 6 million metric tons of new solar e-waste annually.
• According to a report jointly prepared by the National Solar Energy Federation of India, SolarPower Europe and PVCycle:
  • India can generate a cumulative of PV waste as high as 34,600 metric tonnes by the end of 2030.
  • This figure will increase by at least 4-5-fold in the consequent decade keeping in view India’s ambitious renewable energy goals.

THREATS POSED BY SOLAR WASTE:

• On health:
  • Solar panels contain toxic materials like lead that can leach out and get accumulated in organisms.
  • Through bioaccumulation, high levels of chemicals are ingested in top-level carnivores including humans, resulting in neurotoxicity, liver damage, tumors, immunosuppression and behavioral changes.
• On soil and water:
  • The most common method of disposing solar wastes is through landfills. The metals and toxic chemicals that the PV Cells contain can, over time, seep into the environment around landfills, polluting the soil as well as the groundwater.
• On air:
  • The burning of solar PV panels releases highly volatile carcinogenic compounds as well as ozone depleting gases. They have a profound impact on global warming and ozone depletion.

SIGNIFICANCE OF SOLAR WASTE MANAGEMENT:

• Resource management: 
  • Photovoltaics consume 40 per cent of the world’s tellurium, 15 per cent of the world’s silver, a substantial amount of semiconductor-grade quartz and lesser but still significant amounts of indium, zinc, tin and gallium. Having a strong recycling system can help in sustainable resource utilization.
• Address rising energy needs:
  • Despite the shock from Covid-19, India’s electricity demand is still projected to grow by almost 5% per year to 2040. To meet such an exponential growth, cheap solar power is essential and the cost competitiveness can be maintained only through a proper solar waste management system.
• Geopolitical significance: 
  • China enjoys a distinct advantage on rare earth minerals and production of solar panels. In the past, China has used this as a leverage against countries like Japan.  
  • 86 precent of India’s solar panel imports come from China. Hence, having a proper solar waste management system is vital for India’s national interests. 
• Success of SDGs: 
  • Solar waste management closely relates to many SDGs, such as SDG 7 (Affordable and clean energy), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 6 (clean waste and sanitation), and SDG 14 (life below water).

CHALLENGES TO E-WASTE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA:

• Fewer incentives to recycle:
  • Recycling a solar panel cost between USD 20 and USD 30, while sending it to a landfill cost USD 1-2. Also, though panels contain valuable materials such as silver, they are mostly made of glass, an extremely low-value material.
• Limited innovation: 
  • Solar panels have an estimated life of 25 years and India’s solar manufacturing industry took off around 2010. As a result, only a fairly small amount of solar waste is generated today. The long lifespan of solar panels serves to disincentivize innovation in this area.
• Informal processing system: 
  • About 95% of India’s e-waste is recycled in the informal sector, dominantly by women and child labourers. Poor management of PV cells can lead to health issues like miscarriages, still births and poor infant health, besides polluting the land and water.

• Infrastructure deficit: 
  • The number of recycling and collection facilities in India are dismal. For instance, there is no commercial raw material recovery facility for solar e-waste operational in India, except for a pilot facility set up by a private company in Gummidipoondi, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
• Ineffective enforcement: 
  • The current framework continues to ignore the informal sector. Also, there is no independent mechanism to verify the implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
• Lack of awareness: 
  • Consumers are unaware of how to handle e wastes and the rules that regulate the disposal of e-wastes like solar panels. They continue to sell their e-waste to the informal sector, which end up in unscientific handling and disposal.

MEASURES TAKEN SO FAR:

• India currently considers solar waste a part of electronic waste and does not account for it separately.
  • However, a committee under the chairmanship of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Secretary had been constituted to propose an action plan to evolve a “circular economy” in solar panel.
• Ministry of Environment, Forests and climate change is the nodal agency for policy, planning, promoting and coordinating the environmental programme including electronics waste.
• E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016 was enacted to encourage recycling and regulate e-waste management in the country.
  • Applicability: It covers Producers, Consumers, Collection Centres, Dismantlers & Recyclers, Manufacturers, Dealers, Refurbishers, and Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs). But Micro and Small Industries are exempted from its ambit.
  • Collection centers: The rules call for establishing collection centres, collection point, take back system etc. for collection of e-waste by producers under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
  • Deposit Refund Scheme has been introduced as an additional economic instrument wherein the producer charges an additional amount as a deposit at the time of sale of the electrical and electronic equipment and returns it to the consumer along with interest when the end-of-life electrical and electronic equipment is returned.
  • Urban Local Bodies are assigned the duty to collect and channelize orphan products to authorized dismantler or recycler.
• Hazardous and other wastes (Management & Transboundary Movement) Rules 2016:
  • It seeks to ensure management, transboundary movement, resource recovery and disposal of hazardous waste in an environmentally sustainable manner.
  • Under the rules, waste electrical and electronic assemblies scrap are prohibited for import.
• Swachh Digital Bharat: 
  • It seeks to raise awareness among the public regarding the recycling of e-wastes by unorganised sector and to educate them about alternative methods of disposing of their e-waste.
  • The general public is encouraged to participate in the programme, by giving their e-waste to authorised recyclers only.
• Greene: 
  • The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has initiated the project “Awareness Programme on Environmental Hazards of Electronic waste” on March 31, 2015. This project is under the ‘Digital India’ initiative.
  • The primary focus of the project is to create awareness among different stakeholders in order to reduce the adverse impact on environment and health due to improper disposal of e-waste.

WAY FORWARD:

• Circular economy:
  • A circular electronics system - one in which resources are not extracted, used and wasted, but re-used in countless ways- creates a sustainable system and improves cost effectiveness of the industry.

• Segregation at source:
  • The key to efficient waste management is to ensure proper segregation of waste at source and to ensure that the waste goes through different streams of recycling and resource recovery.
• Formalise the sector:
  • Waste collection and processing should be developed into a formal, technology-reliant sector. Start-ups and PPP models need to be encouraged in the sector.
• Strong renewable energy waste laws:
  • India needs a firm policy on managing waste that results from used solar panels. Also, environmental disposal and recycling of solar waste could be made part of the power purchase agreement governments signs with project developers.
• Invest in infrastructure:
  • To bring down the cost of recycling infrastructure, more recycling plants need to be developed through coordination between the energy and waste sector.
• Incentives for new players:
  • Viability gap funding, incentives and issues of green certificates should be looked into to encourage the recycling industry to participate more.
• Research and Development:
  • Technology advancements will be significant in reducing the impact of renewable energy waste. For this, strong academia-industry collaboration needs to be developed.
• Adopt global best practices:
  • India can adopt the strategies followed by the European Union’s ‘Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive’. Under this, responsibility of disposing wastes lie on the manufacturers or distributors who introduce or install such equipment for the first time.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Q. ‘To realise the ideals of sustainable development, India’s ambitious expansion plans in solar energy needs to be backed by a firm policy on managing solar waste.’ Discuss?