The hidden impacts of India's solar boom

India’s ambitious goal to achieve net zero emissions by 2070 and fully transition to clean energy has led to the installation of 84.28 GW of solar plants across the country, with an additional 55.60 GW currently under construction.

Globally, India ranks third in energy consumption, with coal accounting for more than half of its total energy generation. The country also relies heavily on imports to meet its energy demands, importing 90 per cent of its oil and 80 per cent of its industrial coal.

Over the past decade, however, India has increasingly adopted renewable energy sources, witnessing a notable 21 per cent increase in renewable energy generation from 2014 to 2023. 

Committed to tripling its renewable energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030, with more than half expected to come from solar power, India has built 12 vast solar parks and plans to install another 39 across 12 states by 2026, strengthening its commitment to a cleaner, greener future.

This solar boom, however, comes with its downsides.  

As the number of large-scale solar plants has increased, so has the amount of waste from panels, including glass, aluminum, silicon, rare-earth elements, power inverters and wiring, posing a threat to the environment.

Experts now warn that the growing use of solar panels may undermine India’s sustainable aspirations.

"Humans have become experts at solving one problem only to create another. We will use a lot of solar energy now, and 20 years later, we will again lament our inability to properly manage what we are producing today," Chetan Solanki, a scientist and professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) told FairPlanet.

This waste is produced mostly during the manufacturing of solar cells and modules, damage during field operations or due to low production efficiency.

India’s current installed solar capacity has already generated about 100 kilotonnes (kt) of waste by 2024, and this figure could rise to over 600 kt by 2030 from both existing and new installations, according to a 2024 study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). By 2050, this volume is expected to increase 32-fold, resulting in approximately 19,000 kt of cumulative waste.

Approximately 67 per cent of the waste is projected to originate from five states: Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, which collectively host eight of India’s ten largest solar parks. These states also have ambitious plans to significantly increase their solar capacity in the coming years.

Energy specialists believe that India’s massive solar energy production, aimed at replacing traditional energy sources, could become difficult to manage.

"With the rapid deployment of solar capacities and the increased focus on domestic cell and module production, we can expect a dramatic rise in solar waste in the coming years," said Ankansha Tyagi, programme lead at CEEW.

Informal System

Although India has not yet established government or commercial recycling facilities for solar waste, a network of informal operators has stepped in to fill the void. Experts say these operators, who risk injury to dismantle, aggregate, transport and recycle panels, are currently managing the recycling efforts without any institutional support.

"We have started disposing of recovered glass from solar plants and also recycle the aluminium and wires along with other electronic waste," said Apurva Sahu, director of the Bhopal-based Fusion Waste Management Company. While the company is still awaiting approval from the state's pollution control board to establish a solar waste plant, it views this as a "potential market" for waste collection and recycling companies like theirs.

"I think a few years down the line, the waste is going to increase exponentially. So the solar waste management market will also grow suddenly," Sahu added. "Once the solar panel comes into the waste channel they get further bifurcated, the plastic waste coming from the panel goes to a plastic recycler and the metal waste goes to the metal recycler and so on."

India’s E-Waste Management Rules 2022 has been in effect since last April. It mandates that solar–panel manufacturers manage the disposal and recycling of their products’ waste. This includes arranging for collection, storage, dismantling panels and establishing recycling facilities. Manufacturers are also required to store panel and cell waste until 2035.

The estimated solar photovoltaic (PV) waste by that time would amount to 187,200 units, which will eventually be disposed of and recycled. This projection is based on the cumulative installation of solar PV systems up to 2015, considering the 20–year lifespan of PV modules.

The 2022 rules, for the first time, mandate the responsible handling of e-waste from electrical and electronic equipment, specifically including solar photovoltaic modules, panels and cells.

These regulations, however, are still in the process of being fully developed and implemented.

"We are disposing of the photovoltaic modules and recycling electric batteries. But that is still at a nascent stage," Rich Parmar, deputy director at the National Institute of Solar Energy, admitted. 

And while waste extracted from solar panels is managed, especially by informal workers at different levels, data on the amount of PV being disposed of or recycled is still unavailable, as the majority is treated as electronic waste. Electric batteries and other items extracted from solar panels are recycled according to the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022.

"Though everything is in the pipeline, we are working on a robust methodology to recycle solar waste while also taking into account the safety of the workers involved in recycling," Parmar told FairPlanet. 

While Parmar stated that a proposal specific to solar waste management should be available by the end of this year, she mentioned that the government does not have data on the number of informal waste recyclers involved in the job. Experts believe that the lack of data and regulations accounting for informal workers leaves them in a precarious situation.

Sonu Khan, a worker at India’s largest unregulated electronic waste dumpyard in Seelampur, which recycles a quarter of the country’s three million tonnes of e–waste, operates in dire conditions. Many unregulated e–waste recyclers like Khan are usually overworked and underpaid. They also lack insurance and protective clothing while working.

Khan dismantles glass, plastic and discarded electronic items that arrive in Seelampur from various states.

"It’s almost impossible to differentiate the e–waste. We simply dismantle and segregate usable material from the vast amount of waste that we receive," explained Khan, who has been in this job for over a decade to support his family of six.

"Though the earnings are very little, ranging from $150 to $200 depending on the value of the materials, this is the only way I can earn money," Khan said.

Reducing consumption 

As India wrestles with its escalating waste crisis, the handling of solar waste is fraught with logistical and economic challenges.

"Our economy is built on increased consumption and production across all sectors, including solar panels. Every form of manufacturing inevitably affects the environment," Solanki from the Indian Institute of Technology said. "The real solution lies in reducing energy consumption rather than solely relying on sustainable alternatives, which can also become unsustainable if driven by continuous production."

While Parmar said that the government is working towards procuring required investments and establishing research and development agencies to work around plausible solutions, Tyagi underlined the urgent need for designated infrastructure to dispose of and recycle the solar waste. 

"The key challenge is the technological gap in the solar sector. These technologies are largely at the lab scale and need substantial financial support for validation and demonstration," Tyagi said. "Therefore, it’s important for the solar manufacturers to set up collection centres to aggregate the solar waste and collaborate with academic institutions to pilot recycling technologies.".

Tyagi further highlighted that solar waste contains several critical materials, such as silicon and copper, which are crucial for India’s clean energy transition. Recovering these metals from solar waste, she pointed out, could help establish resilient domestic supply chains that will in turn support manufacturing industries. 

"If not responsibly recycled, solar waste can have a detrimental impact on the environment as well as the health of workers," she concluded.

Image by the American Public Power Association.