Dr. Jin-seok Lee’s research team of the Energy Conversion & Storage Materials Lab. at the Korea Institute of Energy Research has succeeded in recycling waste solar panels that have reached the end of their lifespan, and furthermore, making high-efficiency solar cells from the collected materials.

Following the development of laboratory-scale solar waste panel recycling technology developed in 2020, it has been scaled-up to a level that can be commercialized, and additionally reduced energy consumption. In addition, materials collected through recycling technology are reused to create high-efficiency solar cells and modules.

As the technology developed by the research team is transferred to domestic companies, it is expected that the construction of solar energy circular economy infrastructure will gain momentum.