Circularity and Sustainability of the Solar Photovoltaic Value Chain in Spain: A Framework

The EU's decarbonisation roadmap places solar energy at the heart of a smart, sustainable and secure energy system to achieve climate neutrality in the EU before 2050. As a result, the Spanish solar market has grown extremely fast over the last two years, challenging the global value chain. While solar seems to be the alternative to fossil energy, the photovoltaic value chain still responds to a ‘take, make, dispose’ economic model with a high dependence on Asia for raw materials and manufactured solar panels. Transforming the photovoltaic value chain into a more circular and sustainable one is becoming a top priority to enable the short-term development expected from this energy. This study aims to examine the circularity and sustainability of the solar photovoltaic value chain through a thematic analysis and the development of a framework. The literature review shows that most of the findings are technical and market oriented. However, some ideas and actions are identified that are useful for circularity and sustainability purposes. The main value of this study is then to provide an integrated ecosystem, with a framework to address the current gap of classifying these activities following an evaluation process that covers most of the circular economy and sustainability principles to support the decision-making process. This study helps to link the academic approach with industry and contributes, by presenting a circularity and sustainability assessment framework, to focus efforts and resources on building a more circular and sustainable solar photovoltaic value chain (PV VC).