Coming up with better means of producing energy is ranking pretty high on some company’s priorities.
Being able to actually produce clean energy without having to burn oil is very important and is one way to lessen the world’s dependency on oil and other fossil fuels that are very harmful to the environment, being actually the major cause of global warming.
Clean energy should rely on renewable sources like sun, wind and water and this is why one of the most popular sources of sustainable energy is solar panels.
Some people tend to think that the panels will be used for a very long time but in reality, a high-quality solar panel should last for about 20 to 25 years.
Some panels which were created in the 1970s are still able to generate clean, oil-free electricity that can be used in homes, buildings and other establishments.
A lot of engineers today are trying to harness the power of the sun to be used for running cars, creating cars that do not need to run on gasoline or oil generated energy.
There are a lot of people now that are trying to figure out how to make solar panels last forever. But before that happens, viable questions pop up into people’s minds.
What can you do with a solar panel that can no longer generate power? How do you dispose of it properly so that it will not harm the environment?
The manufacturers of solar panels are looking to the future, a future when a flood of solar panels that cannot be used any more will flood the earth.
There might be stacks and stacks of solar panels that will become a huge waste pile impossible to recycle. So, people got scared of this idea and in 2007, an organization, named PV cycles, came to life.
The main goal of this particular organization was to implement commitment of the creators of solar panels and other equipments that use photovoltaic, which is the main material for solar panels, to create a voluntary take back and recycling process for panels that cannot be used anymore and take responsibility for solar models throughout the entire value change.
One company that is joining this cause is Solarfun, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of solar panels that can be used for residential applications. They announced that they will be joining PV cycles.
Peter Xie, the current president of Solarfun, said that his company will dedicate time and resources to find innovative ways to make solar panels more environmentally friendly.
Solarfun is looking forward to be able to contribute to the development of better and newer standards for sustainability.
Other large companies that have joined PV recycle are Sanyo, Sharp and Suntech, who are considered to be the leaders in their particular industries.
Right now, solar panel materials can be recycled to become new solar panels or even other pretty diverse products. Silicon, glass and aluminum, very popular recyclable materials, take up more than ninety percent of the total weight of the solar panel and it is said that you can actually get back your investment within the first eighteen months of operation.
Being able to create a very good and solid solar panel recycling program will make the photovoltaic industry even more environmentally friendly.
