Storm Desmond vs my 4kw PV system. Storm had a good go. Bracket must have got loose and the wind did the rest
Desmond did the dirty on my PV system over Christmas. One of my PV panels has been destroyed. I have seen a few cracked panels in my work and they still work but this one was mushed so much so as the frame came off and tuned the glass into a 10,000 parts (still on the panel though) took me a little while to find a replacement for the Sharp 245 with a close match to the voltage. Sharp who made my panel have now closed their factory in Wrexham. The panels as most in the UK (best to check though) come under something called the European PV Cycle system scheme which is a part of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment regulation. Manufacturers and importers put money aside for the recycling of the PV panels
to quote –“PV CYCLE is a pan-European Producer scheme, offering dedicated compliance and waste management services for solar energy system products falling under WEEE and Battery Producer Responsibility legislation.”
Having a “PV cycle” system which I have known about for quite a few years and using it are 2 different things. I am now on the path of discovery of how you implement the PV cycle system (if you have less than 20 then its free to recycle them). It’s not really a mater of going down to the local authority recycling system route (they will take it as it does come under WEEE regulation) but I wanted my panel as a lot of people will in a few decades to come to enter the right recycling route so that as much material as poss could be recovered. there are a network of Dedicated Collection Facilities (DCF) for PV in England and Wales. Did not see any in Northern Ireland or Scotland (could be differing legislative regulations) my nearest is 86 miles (ps the link on the DCF map in the UK PV Cycle did not work) having gone into their website. I have a less than perfect panel thanks to storm Desmond(My nearest DCF point website does state –” PV CYCLE will only accept complete modules and modules cannot be returned if they have been stripped of any materials. Any excessively soiled (such as demolition waste) or fire-damaged modules (not including hotspots) cannot be returned using the PV CYCLE service” (oh and their link to the form for recycling and the link to their WEEE certificate is blank as well)
Lets see if I can recycle?
The number of DTS points in the UK who can take PV WEEE waste through the PV cycle scheme. I think! Scotland and Northern Ireland don’t seem to have any ( I think)
