Environmental impact assessment of solar panel production and recycling in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is world's second largest solar photovoltaic (PV) panel manufacturing region after China. The increases in panel production, domestic installation and end-of-life disposal are resulting in environmental impacts across the region. In particular, appropriate waste disposal methods within Southeast Asia, coupled with assessments of their environmental impacts are ever more critical. While many studies have assessed the environmental impacts of production and waste recovery, those for panels produced in Southeast Asia have received limited attention. This paper aims to assess the environmental impacts of the production and waste recovery of PV produced in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, through a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) with intermediate materials produced in China, and two waste recovery methods: laminated glass recycling facility (LGRF) and full recovery end-of-life photovoltaic (FRELP). The results show that the climate change potential of solar panels produced in Southeast Asia range from 10,442 to 10,976 kgCO 2 -eq per tonne of modules, compared to 11,052 kgCO 2 -eq in China. Waste recovery methods can lower the environmental impacts of solar panels across all impact categories when considering the avoided impacts from the recovery of materials. The reductions were most pronounced for climate change and metal depletion potential. Higher recovery yields would also result in reduced environmental impacts. In conclusion, this paper indicates that a supply chain that includes Southeast Asian PV assembly is a lower carbon option to the prevailing supply chain, especially when enhanced with effective waste recovery policies.