Purpose of the Establishment of the Association

 August, 2022

　In Japan, the solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation was prompted due to the introduction of the feed-in tariff system (FITS) in 2012. By the end of the year of 2020, the solar PV cumulative installed capacity had accumulated to be 64,760,000 kW, which is the 3rd amount in the world, next to Chaina and the USA. In addition, the amount of the electric power generated by the renewable energies exceeded 20 % of the entire domestic power generation, and the amount of the solar PV power generation has become nearly 10% of that entire power generation in Japan. Therefore, the solar PV power generation has come to play a major role among the renewable energies. 

   However, considering the entire primary energies that include the energies used for others than the electric power, we still heavily depend on the fossil fuels such as oil, coals, and LNG; and furthermore, we are heavily dependent on the import from the overseas for the supply of most of these fossil fuels. Under such circumstances, the energy prices are soaring due to the increase in the energy demands associated with the economic recovery from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection issue and due to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine which significantly disrupted the international energy supply. 

　Therefore, not only in order to secure the energy in a stable manner but also to play the role as the country that declared “Carbon Neutrality by 2050,” (i.e. Japan declared that she aims to realize a carbon-neutral, decarbonized society.), it is expected that the renewable energies including the solar PV power generation are increasingly utilized instead of reducing the use of the fossil fuels that are heavily dependent on the import from the overseas.

　The lifetime of the solar panels used for the solar PV power generation is from 20 to 30 years. Considering the accelerated-pace progress due to the application of FITS, a large amount of solar panels are expected to reach the end of their lives after the middle of the 2030s, so that about 800,000 tons of the used solar panels are expected to be discarded per year around the 2040s.  

　When the time of a big disposal of the used solar panels comes, their landfill disposal or illegal dumping will cause the environmental contamination unless the used solar panels are processed in an appropriate manner. As a result, the solar panels that are the major tools for the Green Growth Strategy will be the main cause of the environmental problems. Now, in order to decompose the solar panels, the research and the development of the technologies has advanced significantly.  

　Among them, there comes such a technology as can decompose the used solar panels into the materials, including the glass and the metals, that contain little impurities. Therefore, we believe that we can not only decompose the materials of the solar panels coming to the end of their lives into resources again, but also construct a system that can maintain the supply of the energy semi-permanently by regenerating the solar panels as the “reborn” solar panels.  

　Hence, with the aim of playing a part in preservation of the global environment and realization of SDGs, we established the PV Reborn Association in order to pursue a technology for disposing and recycling of the used solar panels in an appropriate manner, and ultimately to establish a sustainable circular energy system that uses the renewal energies in which the solar PV generation plays the central role.