Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering
Description of field of research:
Rooftop solar, with small-scale renewable energy credits (STCs), can significantly reduce the electricity bills of Australian households. This can spur consumers to increase their current solar system size or even replace their older, less efficient system with a newer (and thus more efficient in general) one.
Early decommission (module lifetime of 5-10 years instead of 25 years) creates an emerging environmental burden because the end-of-life needs to be managed, while the infrastructure and framework currently do not exist in Australia. Most panels end up being landfilled, only a small fraction are collected for recycling and the users have to pay a high recycling fee.
This research will use surveys to understand the PV owners, PV recyclers and installers' altitudes, while identifying key barriers, enables, and drivers to sustainably manage early decommissioned PV panels in Australia.
The 60-day of this project have to be completed prior to 31st March 2023.
School
Research areas
Photovoltaic power systems | End-of-life
- Research environment
- Expected outcomes
- Our team
- References
The student will participate in survey design, data analysis and result interpretation.
