Solar Photovoltaic End-of-Life Waste Management Policies in Leading Countries and the Lessons Learned for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The global cumulative capacity has reached around 843 GW in 2021. Considering that PV panels last on average between 25 and 30 years, at the end of life PV waste will become a serious problem due to the toxicity of some of the materials used in its modules. Global PV waste could reach 78 million metric tons by 2050. However, the global scene is still missing robust PV waste management policies. China, Germany, Japan, and India are leading globally in terms of installed PV capacity; therefore, these countries were investigated in the paper to assess their current PV waste management. Germany is an excellent model for PV waste management policy assessment. Although Japan and China have no effective PV-specific waste management law like Germany, they have other general laws that regulate PV waste. These laws could be investigated and used for assessment. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced that one of its Vision 2030 objectives is to increase domestic generation capacity from renewable energy to 50% by 2030; most of the generation will be through PV panels. Saudi Arabia does not have PV end-of-life policies. The assessment was used to highlight the important first steps for introducing PV waste management law in the Kingdom. The main feature that could be the cornerstone of all developed policies is the extended-producer-responsibility (EPR) framework. This assessment of the Saudi PV waste management law could be highly beneficial for future research on possible frameworks to be implemented in Saudi Arabia.