Meet the PHOTORAMA project, driving circular innovation in the photovoltaic industry

PHOTORAMA is an EU-funded project focused on creating a circular model for the photovoltaic (PV) industry. By developing advanced recycling technologies, it aims to recover critical materials from end-of-life solar panels and bridge the gap between manufacturing and recycling.
In this interview, project coordinator Dr. Claire Agraffeil shares insights on PHOTORAMA’s impact, key achievements, and how the project is shaping the future of sustainable solar energy.
 

Project Information

How would you describe your project in one sentence?
PHOTORAMA is a EU-funded project that aims to demonstrate a circular model within the photovoltaic value chain from concept to field experience. 

What challenges did your project aim to solve?
Today, one of the world’s top priorities is to reduce carbon emissions to limit the global temperature rise to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels, as stated in the Paris agreement. Solar energy is at the forefront to achieve such an ambitious challenge, as it is unquestionably the most applicable and affordable solution to cut fossil fuels and reach carbon neutrality.
Photovoltaic (PV) industry in this context has to be exemplary. It has to be resilient and sustainable, showing the potentiality and the feasibility of collective approaches and business perspectives. This is the global challenge of PHOTORAMA.

What do you think sets your project apart from other projects in the field?
Our project is a precursor in the field. PHOTORAMA has been designed to rethink progress through the photovoltaic value chain. The concept of circular model provides principles and guidelines; however, to bring it to reality, field experience is necessary. Covering the whole PV value chain, the partners are bridging the gap in between the manufacturing and recycling industries in terms of business perspectives, which is usually addressed “conceptually”. 

What sparked the idea for your project?
As part of our global challenge, PHOTORAMA focuses on technological development and innovation where it is most needed: end-of-life management.
Indeed, recycling PV panels is not an easy task. The current practices are identified as down-cycling which leads to irreversible loss of critical, strategic and valuable raw materials.
Our project has been thought and designed to demonstrate that innovation can provide solutions for high-value recycling.

Milestones and Achievements

What are the standout achievements of your project so far? What positive changes do you expect or have already seen?
Photovoltaic panels are complex devices. To recycle them properly, it is a matter of safely separating the materials without mixing them to preserve the purity. In the framework of PHOTORAMA, successive smart technological steps are being successfully developed and scaled up to implement a pilot line demo to manage and recover each component of PV panels.
Step one, we disassemble automatically the external components. Step two, we open the sandwich–multilayers. Step three, we recover the critical and valuable materials from solar cells (silicon, copper, silver, indium, gallium etc.).
It may seem easy but there are over 150 000 models of PV devices, with their own design specifications, so it is very complex to find a universal way of disassembling them. We had to design and develop a whole system, flexible enough to treat any kind of PV waste. It is very important, because recycling is about throughput and high volume treatment. This is what makes our work outstanding.  

Which strategies or actions were key in achieving these outcomes?
R&D for truly innovative technologies is quite unpredictable and may or may not work out in the end. However, by working, thinking together and supporting each other, the team has successfully leveraged the technical challenges. The assets and drawbacks of the technologies have been considered and by making the technologies complementary, we shaped a unique and comprehensive model that can manage a very wide range of PV waste materials.  

Who benefits most from your project, and how do you work together with your community and stakeholders?
I would say the PV industry and the community. Our project has built on networking, macro-regional workshops, policy conference, articles and communications to share knowledge, discuss, debate the opportunities and raise awareness broadly.
In terms of global challenges for solar energy, PHOTORAMA proactively leads and coordinates a clustering group of EU projects fostering PV sustainability.
The team also contributes to legislative development such as the WEEE directive revision, the Recyclability Index development, policy briefs including recommendations and standardization progress.

Looking Ahead

How will the impact of your project grow and evolve moving forward?
PHOTORAMA is primarily paving the way to sustainable practices in end-of-life management for solar industry by showing the viability of innovative high value recycling technologies. While photovoltaic deployment is the keystone to reach carbon neutrality, we nurture the synergy of life cycle approach and demonstrate against unfunded concerns that PV technology can be sustainable and highly recyclable.  

How do you envision your project sparking inspiration across the sector?
A change of paradigm is key. Today, manufacturing industries and recycling industries usually grow apart since they have very different approach and economic perspectives. Creating a dialogue, understanding each other is the first step to elaborate a new pattern with common objective for global win-win perspectives. 

How do you see other innovators building upon your work, and what new challenges might they tackle?
The multi-step model of PHOTORAMA could inspire innovators either to pick up isolated technologies to establish new prototypes or to improve the model itself.
Today, the easier and faster short-term approach is based on crushing/shredding processes that do not enable the recovery of critical and valuable materials. I would say the very first challenge is to pursue the “more difficult” route leading to high value recycling and sustainable long term development of the industry.
Another challenge remains to think globally when developing infrastructure, logistics and supply chains involved in the process. This means always balance and consider besides profits the environmental and social dimensions, which was part of our framework.

About PHOTORAMA

Why is managing the end of life of PV panels important? What can it mean for EU competitiveness?
An important thing to be aware of is that while the manufacturing industry is a global industry with products mostly imported from Asia, recycling is local issue. PV waste is and will be on the European ground and there is no other option than taking care of it – so better to develop a robust system for waste management and transition from issue to opportunity. 

How do PHOTORAMA’s partnerships with academia, industry, and local communities drive innovation and sustainability in European energy?
PHOTORAMA is a collective story, a collective success.
Academic, equipment manufacturers and recyclers/end-users have developed together up to six technologies from lab experiments to design and assembly of pilot machinery all over Europe. The high throughput processes allow for tangible and realistic waste management and such line has the great potential for commercial development. The duplication of isolated Units or full Line is already in the order books. This is a good message that may lead more globally to significant progress promoting upcycling practices. 

PHOTORAMA is very much concerned with the end of life of PV panels. What, if anything, could be done at the design and production stage that could make this process easier?
Of course, we need start over from the very beginning and rethink design. This is part of circular thinking as the first principle: preserving and enhancing natural capital and resources.
However, this progress happening today will emerge at the end of life stage only after few decades, since the lifetime of panels is about 25 to 30 years. So it is important to remember that the most urgent challenge is to manage the millions tons of PV waste coming in the next two or three decades with the current standard design.

Background

PHOTORAMA is a project funded under Horizon Europe, a research and innovation programme lasting until 2027. The programme facilitates collaboration and strengthens the impact of research and innovation in developing EU policies while tackling global challenges.