What is end-of-life management for photovoltaics?
End-of-life management for photovoltaics (PV) refers to the processes that occur when solar panels and other components of a PV system (racking, inverters, etc.) are retired from operation. A Berkeley Lab survey of U.S. solar industry professionals shows that the average operational lifespan of a solar panel has increased from around 20 years in 2007 to 25-35 years in 2025. Most PV systems are still in the early years of their expected operational lifetime. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) Snapshot 2025 report, approximately 70% of solar energy systems have been installed since 2019. More data is needed to understand when, why, and what volumes of solar panels are reaching end of life, but weather damage and installation errors are expected to accelerate end-of-life issues.
There are many considerations on whether to voluntarily replace solar systems before their end of life. Some consumers and plant operators may choose to upgrade their solar panels before the warranty period expires or to take advantage of technological improvements—a practice known as repowering.
Why Is PV end-of-life management important?
There are millions of solar installations connected to the grid in the United States, which means there are hundreds of millions of PV panels in use. According to an end-of-life report by the International Renewable Energy Agency, cumulative PV waste in the United States is projected to be between 0.17 and 1 million tons by 2030. To put that in perspective, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that there are 200 million tons of solid waste, excluding recycled and composted materials, generated in the United States each year. While few systems are entering the waste stream right now, more will reach their end of life in the next few decades. Additionally, PV modules and systems contain a variety of critical materials and minerals, so recovering the modules and system components presents an opportunity to bolster domestic supply chains.
Can PV modules be recycled?
Recycling processes for silicon and cadmium telluride PV modules exist, but in the United States, the total cost of recycling is still generally greater than the cost of disposing them in a landfill. There are multiple recycling facilities in the United States—both PV-specific and other—that have the capacity to recycle solar panels. Some common approaches to solar panel recycling are shown in the figure below, but companies may use different, innovative approaches to recover more materials at higher purity levels. Focusing on technical innovations for PV end-of-life management will help the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) reduce the environmental impacts of solar energy and ultimately make solar energy more affordable.
Full Lifecycle Approach to PV End-of-Life Management
While end of life occurs after solar panels and system components are no longer in use, considerations across the entire lifecycle of PV can help reduce the environmental impact of PV. This includes everything from solar panel design and materials usage at the beginning of the lifecycle to maintenance and repair and, finally, decommissioning and recycling at the end of life. SETO's Photovoltaics End-of-Life Action Plan outlines a five-year strategy to establish safe, responsible, and economic end-of-life practices.
Additionally, SETO is a part of the Energy Department's Critical Materials Collaborative (CMC) and works with other government offices to accelerate research and development of critical materials-related work and domestic supply chains. The CMC works across the entire supply chain to diversify and expand supply, develop alternatives, boost manufacturing efficiency, and to improve recycling processes. Projects funded in these areas are recorded in the DOE's Critical Minerals & Materials Projects Database.
Research in PV End-of-Life Management
SETO funds efforts to develop new materials and designs that can make PV products longer-lasting, less energy-intensive to produce, and easier to recycle. These efforts can mitigate environmental impacts, pollution, and effects on human health. Below are several recent funding programs that addressed end-of-life challenges. Search the Solar Energy Research Database to learn more about individual SETO-funded projects.
- Materials, Operation, and Recycling of Photovoltaics (MORE PV) Funding Program (FY23) – Four projects were selected that support technology improvements covering all stages of the PV lifecycle.
- Small Innovative Projects in Solar (SIPS) 2023 Funding Program – These projects aimed to significantly lower costs as well as improve the power conversion efficiency, energy output, reuse and recycling of system components, service lifetime, and manufacturability of PV technologies.
- Small Innovative Projects in Solar (SIPS) 2022 Funding Program – Several projects worked to improve reuse and recycling processes of PV technologies.
- Photovoltaics Research and Development (PVRD) Funding Program (FY22) – Multiple projects were selected that work to reduce the use of precious metals like silver in solar modules and develop techniques for PV recycling, which will result in a more resilient supply chain with fewer environmental impacts.
- Photovoltaic Reliability and Standards Development – SETO has had an ongoing investment to address operations, maintenance and repair of PV systems.
SETO has funded projects at national labs on life-cycle analysis of PV modules, cost models for module recycling, and more. Below are several of those projects and reports. For more on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL) reports, visit the NREL Research Outputs Database.
- In 2025, a SETO Lab Call funded NREL’s PV RESOLVE (Reliable Entire-System Operations and Lifecyle Value Evaluation) program to support decision making for continued operation, repowering, retirement, recycling, landfilling, refurbishment, repair, or resale actions.
- In 2021, NREL published Solar Photovoltaic Module Recycling: A Survey of U.S. Policies and Initiatives related to end-of-life modules.
- In 2021, NREL published Best Practices at the End of the Photovoltaic System Performance Period, which considers costs and other factors for each end-of-life option for PV systems, including refurbishment, repowering and decommissioning.
- In 2020, NREL published the first assessment of worldwide efforts to recycle PV modules and identified the best ways to manage disposal. Researchers investigated lessons learned from the International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems (IEA-PVPS) program to help inform manufacturers and other stakeholders about recycling requirements for PV hardware and efforts to design reusable modules and other equipment.
- In 2020, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) published Benchmarking Utility-Scale PV Operational Expenses and Project Lifetimes: Results from a Survey of U.S. Solar Industry Professionals which quantifies expected useful lifetimes and operational expenditures of utility-scale PV plants in the United States.
- In 2020, NREL published a report on designing recyclable modules, which was cofounded with the Energy Department’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO), formerly known as the Advanced Materials Office.
- In 2019, NREL was awarded $150,000 via a SETO Lab Call to analyze PV end-of-life management and the effectiveness of efforts to design modules and other equipment for easier reuse.
- Since 2012, NREL has coordinated PV sustainability efforts for the IEA-PVPS program, which focuses on recycling research and analysis, assessing the life cycle of PV modules, improving environmental safety and health in PV manufacturing, and publishing reports on end-of-life management for PV panels.
Additional Awards
- In 2017, SETO awarded $900,000 to SRI International, an independent nonprofit research organization, to develop a more efficient process to recycle the silicon waste generated by the wafer-cutting process into PV-grade silicon.
- In 2016, SETO awarded $700,000 to EnergyBin, a company that created an online marketplace for solar-industry overstock and hard-to-find components. This marketplace allows decommissioned materials to be reused in the form of discounted, warrantied solar project components from reputable sources. This gives new life to old materials while reducing project construction and maintenance costs.
Additional Resources
- A Circular Economy for Solar Photovoltaic System Materials: Drivers, Barriers, Enablers, and U.S. Policy Considerations (NREL) – This report analyzes factors that could both impede and encourage end-of-life options for PV systems in the United States.
- Best Practices at the End of the Photovoltaic System Performance Period (NREL) – This report considers the costs and other factors for refurbishing, repowering, and decommissioning PV system hardware at end of life.
- Benchmarking Utility-Scale PV Operational Expenses and Project Lifetimes: Results from a Survey of U.S. Solar Industry Professionals (LBNL)
- Design for Recycling Principles Applicable to Selected Clean Energy Technologies (Springer Nature)
- End‐of‐Life Management of Photovoltaic Panels: Trends in PV Module Recycling Technologies (IEA-PVPS)
- End-of-Life Management of Photovoltaic Solar Panels in the United States (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)