Blockchain-enabled Circular Economy -- Collaborative Responsibility in Solar Panel Recycling

Abstract

The adoption of renewable energy resources, such as solar power, is on the rise. However, the excessive installation and lack of recycling facilities pose environmental risks. This paper suggests a circular economy approach to address the issue. By implementing blockchain technology, the end-of-life (EOL) of solar panels can be tracked, and responsibilities can be assigned to relevant stakeholders. The degradation of panels can be monetized by tracking users' energy-related activities, and these funds can be used for future recycling. A new coin, the recycling coin (RC-Coin), incentivizes solar panel recycling and utilizes decentralized finance to stabilize the coin price and supply issue.

Figures (6)

• Figure 1: The complete life cycle of a solar panel. Black and red arrows, respectively, highlight the linear and circular use. All the components used in this figure are royalty-free and extracted from https://pixabay.com/
• Figure 2: A conceptual diagram showing the actors in our CE (solar panel manufacturer, recycling company, green activists, utility company, and prosumers) interacting with a Blockchain. Further, the contents of a block, transactions, and the process of creating a Merkel tree are also illustrated. All the components used in this figure are royalty-free and extracted from https://pixabay.com/
• Figure 3: Solution 1: This figure demonstrates how different entities within a solar system are connected to a blockchain platform and contribute to recycling the solar panel through the circular economy concept.
• Figure 4: This figure demonstrates how the proposed solution can be used in the case where solar panels fail within the warranty period and before reaching their EOL.
• Figure 5: This figure demonstrates how the proposed solution can be used in the case where solar panels fail after the warranty period but before reaching their EOL.