Producer vs. local government: The locational strategy for end-of-life photovoltaic modules recycling in Zhejiang province

摘要

The collection and recycling of end-of-life photovoltaic modules is emerging as a challenge due to the dramatic growing installment of distributed PV systems worldwide. This paper studies the locational strategy for recycling facilities of end-of-life PV modules from the perspective of various stakeholders with a case in Zhejiang province, one of the leading regions in promoting distributed photovoltaic applications in China. The generation of end-of-life modules in the "Million Household Rooftop PV Project" in Zhejiang Province is estimated from 2041 to 2045. The regional reverse logistics network for collection of the retired PV modules is optimized using the Mixed Integer Linear Programing (MILP) model. The article draws on the PV recycling scheme of PV CYCLE in Europe, and proposes the following two scenarios for comparison: (1) Scenario A: Municipal recycling, in which the local government takes the responsibility to establish the collection and recycling infrastructures; and (2) Scenario B: Producer cooperative recycling under Extended Producer Responsibility scheme, in which the PV producers use their sales and customer services network to help collecting the end-of-life PV modules. The different roles of the stakeholders affect the overall locational strategy for recycling. The result shows that: (1) Both scenarios result in similar path of the utility of recycling facilities: when only one recycling facility is needed in 2041, the recycling plant in Hangzhou will be used to minimize the overall transportation cost for the whole province; while more facilities are needed due to increasing generation of end-of-life modules in the next 4 years, regional collection centers will be assigned to the nearest recycling facility, dividing the province into three regional recycling group: "North Group (including Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou)", "South Group (including Jinhua, Lishui, and Quzhou)", and the "Coastal Group (including Wenzhou and Taizhou)". (2) Although the overall cost of reverse logistic in scenario B is slightly higher than scenario A at the beginning in 2041, integrating the producer's sales and service network into the collection network can significantly lower the overall reverse logistics cost up to 9.7 percent at the end of the 2043 when the waste PV generation achieves 72 thousand ton/year. The conclusion suggests the necessity to introduce the Extended Producer Responsibility principle in Chinese PV market to encourage the industry to participate in the construction of an efficient recycling system for the coming wave of end-of-life PV modules.