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Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering volume 2, pages 96–109 (2025)
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Photovoltaics — the fastest-growing renewable energy — has seen rapid growth in global cumulative installations, owing to continuous technological advancements in module and cell designs and a decreasing levelized cost of energy. However, this growth brings challenges associated with end-of-life (EOL) management of photovoltaic (PV) modules. Recycling, an important pillar of the circular economy, has a pivotal role in the liberation and recovery of embedded materials present in the EOL PV modules. In this Review, we discuss the current PV recycling strategies, covering liberation of materials and metal recovery approaches, for both pilot trials and laboratory-scale demonstrations. We then highlight their characteristic parameters, performance and key differences, as well as open challenges to PV recycling in terms of cost-effectiveness, policy regulations and data availability. Next, we summarize the technological innovations needed to achieve adequate separation of embedded materials and efficient material recovery. Finally, we propose a way forward to achieve cost-effective, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly recycling of EOL PV modules.
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This research is supported by the National Research Foundation, Singapore and the National Environment Agency, Singapore under its Closing the Resource Funding Initiative (Award No. CTRL-2023-1D-01). The authors acknowledge G. Heath, Principal Scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), for valuable insights into the technical structure of the manuscript.
These authors contributed equally: Ying Sim, Ankit, Yeow Boon Tay.
Energy Research Institute at Nanyang Technological University (ERI@N), Singapore, Singapore
Ying Sim, Ankit & Nripan Mathews
Singapore–CEA Alliance for Research in Circular Economy (SCARCE), Singapore, Singapore
Ying Sim, Ankit & Nripan Mathews
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
Yeow Boon Tay & Nripan Mathews
School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
Dwarakanath Ravikumar
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Y.S., A. and Y.B.T. researched data for the article. All authors contributed substantially to discussion of the content. Y.S., A., Y.B.T. and D.R. wrote the first draft of the article. N.M. led the project and directed the revision and editing of the manuscript.
Correspondence to Nripan Mathews.
The authors declare no competing interests.
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Sim, Y., Ankit, Tay, Y.B. et al. Open challenges and opportunities in photovoltaic recycling. Nat Rev Electr Eng 2, 96–109 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44287-024-00124-8
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