Rinovasol establishes international on-site refurbishment
A new approach to the circular economy: Rinovasol, the leading specialist company for the recycling and refurbishment of solar modules, is ensuring that more and more solar modules remain where they were previously used for refurbishment and reuse.
According to World Bank forecasts, global waste production will increase by 70 percent by 2050. And this waste consists not only of consumer and municipal waste, but increasingly also of products that are needed for the energy transition. The focus here is on photovoltaics as the outstanding energy source of the future. Solar energy is inexhaustible and can de facto cover the entire global energy demand. To achieve these goals, millions of solar modules are needed.
"To ensure that the demand for high-quality solar modules can be met in the long term and to avoid gigantic amounts of waste, it is necessary to refurbish modules with less-than-optimal performance in the best possible way. This makes modules available anew for further use and significantly extends their life cycles," says Toralf Nitsch, Managing Director of Rinovasol Global Services. The Rinovasol Group is Europe's largest solution provider for the recycling and refurbishment of solar modules. The refurbishment of modules is a cost-effective and ecologically sound alternative to the scrap yard. More than 95 percent of the modules supplied can be refurbished and returned to the market.
This reduces the waste of natural raw materials and happens in a cycle that ensures that any waste produced is reused or recycled to the highest possible quality. The circular economy is an efficient model of production and consumption and thus an important macroeconomic approach.
To take the circular economy to the next level, Rinovasol has established international on-site refurbishment. At various locations, including Israel, Chile, Brazil, and South Africa, Rinovasol collects solar modules regionally through its partner companies and transports them to nearby production sites. From there, the reconstructed modules are returned to the economic cycle on a regional basis. So far, companies of the Rinovasol Group have refurbished more than one million modules and respectively recycled a smaller number of them. The Group is currently servicing manufacturers of such modules, operators of photovoltaic plants and parks in 40 countries.
For Toralf Nitsch, regional orientation plays an essential role. Concentrating on international industrial locations shortens supply chains and transport routes and puts Rinovasol in a position to respond quickly to all concerns. "In this way, we already reduce CO2 emissions at the logistics level and ensure a high level of efficiency in the worldwide accumulation and distribution of solar modules with an IT solution developed in-house. To optimise energy production and reduce the CO2 footprint as much as possible, we will manage the solar energy from the refurbished modules in virtually connected DC generators worldwide and make it directly available again in the respective regions. In this way, we bring natural energy directly to the people," says Toralf Nitsch.
With the standardised and established conditioning for solar modules, which after a defect analysis are intended for the refinement of such modules by coating with an approved and specially developed material, Rinovasol already has a head start in the market, which is constantly being expanded through consistent investments in the automatic workflows.
