Recycling of End-of-Life Crystalline Silicon PV Modules: Technologies, Challenges, and EU Circular Economy Frameworks

Crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV) modules represent over 90% of the global solar market and will generate a rapidly increasing waste stream in the coming decades. By 2050, global PV waste is expected to exceed 60–78 million tonnes, creating both an environmental challenge and an opportunity for recovering valuable materials such as silicon, silver, and aluminium. This thesis evaluates current and emerging recycling pathways for end-of-life c-Si modules, including mechanical, thermal, chemical, and hybrid processes. A comparative assessment is performed across technical performance, environmental impacts based on life-cycle inventory (LCI) data, and techno-economic indicators. Special attention is given to the recovery of high-purity silicon and silver, which are key drivers of economic viability. The study also develops a case analysis of the Netherlands, a high-penetration PV market facing a steep rise in end-of-life modules from 2030 onwards. Despite strong R&D activity, the lack of dedicated high-value recycling infrastructure and the limitations of EU weight-based policy targets pose barriers to circularity. Results show that hybrid recycling offers the best balance between circularity and profitability, mainly due to its ability to recover silicon at metallurgical grade. Policy gaps including the absence of Design-for-Recycling standards and critical material-focused incentives remain major obstacles. Future work should focus on industrial scaling of hybrid processes, development of fully circular module designs, and market validation for solar-grade recycled silicon.