Thailand is among a number of countries trying to cut reliance on fossil fuels by highlighting renewable energy development, but the colossal task of managing solar panel waste remains a bottleneck, dimming the light of hopeful advancement in renewable energy.
The government aims to increase the proportion of energy that comes from renewable sources to 30% by 2036 and to 40% (or 19,000 megawatts) soon thereafter, under Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's policy.
Since Thailand opened the solar farm market to private players in 2008, renewable power-generating capacity (mostly generated from solar farms) has skyrocketed.
In the first quarter of this year, renewable capacity was almost 12,000MW, or 13% of the country's total capacity.
Energy policymakers will soon let individual households generate their own power through solar rooftop panels. More solar panels will result in lower power costs for homes.
While regulators have discussed the benefits of rooftop panels, there has been little talk about these panels' lifespan, nor about how to dispose of equipment that is no longer functional.
According to studies, millions of disposed solar photovoltaic units (PVs) will flood Thailand. Policymakers have yet to figure out what to do with this waste, which would release a substantial amount of toxic chemicals into the environment. According to estimates, the PV waste disposal cost will be in the billions of baht.
The local solar segment has grown rapidly in the past few years, fuelled by Chinese investors who moved their production base from Europe, where anti-dumping surcharges increased production costs.
In 2015, total new foreign investment in solar panel production jumped more than 800% from the previous year to 45.2 billion baht. Chinese entities were the largest investors. Extrapolating from the investment numbers, the solar panels produced in Thailand last year could generate more than 1,000MW of power.
Thailand officially introduced its solar power policy in 2015 as part of its power development plan. But the country has been running a solar power pilot programme since 2001, providing commercial solar farm licences since 2008.
According to a Chulalongkorn University study sponsored by the Thailand Research Fund (TRF), solar projects installed from 2001 to date will eventually generate 350,000-500,000 tonnes of solar panel waste.
Solar panels operate for an average of 25 years, which means all panels installed to date in Thailand will begin being disposed by at least 2026. Millions of wasted panels will eventually flood the country in the next 5-10 years.
A considerable portion of panels has already been fixed, reinstalled and dumped into community waste cycles already.
"The most concerning issue is that some expired solar panels have already been assimilated into community waste, and there are no agencies to deal with them appropriately," said Asst Prof Pichaya Rachdawong of the Engineering Faculty of Chulalongkorn University, who is part of the team that conducted the survey.
CURRENT MANAGEMENT
The study, entitled "Management of Expired Solar PV Panels", looked at two types of solar panels being used in the world: silicon-based PV and thin-film PV.
These two types consist of recycled metal parts and toxic chemicals that damage health and need complicated extraction processes to be reused.
The most dangerous chemical substance in expired silicon-based solar panels is lead, which can contaminate foods and result in lead poisoning.
A major toxic chemical used in thin-film solar panels is cadmium, open exposure to which causes several types of cancer, destroys respiratory systems and can lead to itai-itai disease -- a name coined by locals in Toyama, Japan after a mass cadmium poisoning that resulted from raw materials mining. Cadmium poisoning can also cause softening of the bones and kidney failure.
Without appropriate measures to separate, recycle or destroy obsolete solar PVs, it would take about 12.5 million baht per tonne to treat and look after the health of people who were affected by the toxic chemicals, according to the study.
The boom in solar power led Thailand, a major importer of fossil fuels, to pledge full support for solar farm developers since the start of the 21st century.
At that time, Thailand did not have appropriate regulations to manage toxic waste from solar projects. There was only one law authorising the Industry Ministry's Department of Industrial Works (DIW) to oversee industrial waste elimination issues across the country.
And with limited regulations, energy policymakers then defined solar waste as only one type of industrial waste and put a note at the end of licences granted to solar project developers -- outlining how they must follow the DIW regulations.
But the DIW itself also has a limited ability to deal with 37.6 million tonnes of industrial and toxic waste. The imminent addition of millions of tonnes of solar waste would be beyond the management of the DIW, which 15 years ago formed a plan to set up sites in six provinces to handle waste management for industrial estates, but it was never carried out.
Asst Prof Pichaya said Thailand is capable of sorting recyclables from industrial waste, but the country does not have the technologies to extract toxic chemicals from expired solar panels or those necessary to purify valuable metals in waste.
"We need more advanced technology to extract precious metals from the waste, which in itself would create a lucrative business," Asst Prof Pichaya said.
WASTE MANAGEMENT MODELS
Europe ranks as the biggest solar power producer in term of capacity, with Germany recognised as having the best solar waste management.
In Germany, solar panel producers must pay for solar waste management and solar waste elimination, with the duties ranging from gathering expired solar panels from solar farms and rooftops, material separation and sending separated material to be recycled.
"Germany set up a PV cycle to process all expired solar panels in Europe in 2010," Asst Prof Pichaya said, adding that the PV cycle gathered about 13,000 tonnes of expired solar panels in that year, of which 7,600 tonnes came from Germany.
In Japan, an archipelago with limited natural resources for power generation, imported raw materials are necessary for solar panel production and the details of solar waste management are slightly different from those in Europe.
Japan has two major laws created to manage solar waste: the first encourages producers to generate less waste from solar panels, and the second aims to support consumers in recycling as much solar waste as possible.
Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is responsible for solar waste management, dealing with about 18 million pieces of not only solar panels, but also all electronic waste from 44 million households across the country.
With the massive accumulation of electronic waste, Japan's comprehensive waste management system comprises 80,000 electronic waste stations where consumers and solar power developers can dump waste. The waste is then taken to 380 stations across the country for waste management and recycling.
The extensive use of solar panels has created a new business segment that generates revenue from solar panels and electronic waste, operated by major electronics companies in Japan.
WHAT ABOUT THAILAND?
There is no shortcut to tackling waste stemming from solar panels in Thailand, and comments from players in the solar energy sector have not shone a light on the issue.
Energy permanent secretary Areepong Bhoocha-oom said the government is in talks with other state agencies, solar panel suppliers and solar power developers who would potentially be responsible for waste management before putting the task under a code of practice from the Energy Regulatory Commission.
"We hope that policymakers can finalise regulations suitable for dealing with obsolete solar panels by next year," Mr Areepong said.
He said energy policymakers hope that regulations for redundant solar panels and waste are finalised in 2018.
DIW director-general Mongkol Pruekwatana said his department plans to have a memorandum of understanding (MoU) among solar developers in order to deal with expired solar panels.
The MoU remains vague, however, subject to mixed responses from solar farm developers.
SPCG Plc chairwoman and chief executive Wandee Khunchornyakong said most solar panels used by SPCG are classified as premium grade, nearly 100% of which can be recycled and would have no adverse impact on the environment.
She did not specify whether the company itself would be responsible for the waste.
SPCG was the first solar farm operator in Thailand, having begun operations in April 2010, when adder rates (the rate state utilities paid operators) were 8.5 baht per unit.
BCPG Plc chief executive Bandit Sapianchai proposed setting up a fund through collecting levies from operators and related agencies. Since solar waste management has high operation costs, energy policymakers could raise funds in advance to have sufficient capital to deal with potential waste problems that could arise.
"However, the levy collection rate and process should be agreed upon by both solar developers and power consumers," Mr Bandit said.
Conversely, Thai Solar Energy Plc chief executive Somphop Prompanapitak brushed off waste management concerns, saying it will take more than 10 years for solar panels in Thailand to become redundant, and by that time more advanced technology can be expected to emerge to handle the burgeoning problem.
He also believes that improved technologies to produce solar panels that are not as reliant on toxic substances will be developed, lessening the problem in the future.
"And I think there will be a new segment to help manage solar waste in the future anyway," Mr Somphop said. "There is no need to worry about it."