APPLICATION OF INTELLIGENT MATERIALS TO THE DESIGN OF SOLAR MODULES FOR THEIR ACTIVE DISASSEMBLY AND THE RECYCLING AND REUSE OF THEIR COMPONENTS

摘要

The photovoltaic market started to take off around 30 years ago. As this is precisely the working life time of a photovoltaic module, it is nowadays that we are disposing the first end-life photovoltaic modules. In the next future the amount of waste generated from photovoltaic modules will grow exponentially and it hence is of absolute importance to define a policy to deal with this waste. The MINERVA project addresses the issue of recycling and revaluing end-life photovoltaic modules. Several recycling techniques have been investigated for modules built with the current crystalline silicon technology. In addition, research has been conducted in order to design a new module which can be easily disassembled in an automatic and efficient process. Intelligent materials with response to chosen stimuli have been used in the design of the module.