Técnicas Reunidas participates in the research project for the generation of new photovoltaic technologies to reduce energy costs through circularity strategies.

Society currently requires immediate mitigation actions in relation to climate change and energy dependence on fossil fuels from regions with geostrategic conflicts or respect for human rights. To address the first of these, the European Union established the long-term strategy for 2050 “A low carbon economy” which aims to lead Europe to achieve zero net Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. 

To support this strategy, renewable energies are presented as the best hope, and within these, solar photovoltaic (PV) energy will play a fundamental role, as stated by the main international organisations in their reports on energy perspectives and scenarios to 2050 (IRENA, SPE, IEA).

Solar PV deployed more capacity than all power generation technologies including fossil fuel generation in 2021. However, solar power still only covers a small share of global electricity demand, around 4%, while more than 70% of global power generation comes from non-renewable sources. For this reason, it is necessary to increase the adoption of this energy source immediately, and one of the keys to this is, and will continue to be for many years to come, the reduction of the price of generating this type of energy, without losing sight of the fact that the improvement in costs and the deployment of renewables must take into account their manageability through storage for their integration into the electricity system, as well as the environmental and social sustainability of the technology, affecting the durability, reparability and recyclability of PV products and systems. 

In this sense, the project entitled “New generation of photovoltaic technologies for energy cost reduction through circularity strategies”, whose acronym is “SUNRISE PV”, proposes solutions and innovations that respond to this challenge in the different phases of the value chain.

The project will be developed by a consortium led by MAGTEL with the participation of six other Spanish companies, CEGASA, CEN SOLUTIONS, ISFOC, MONDRAGON, MUGAPE, SOLTEC and TÉCNICAS REUNIDAS.

It also has the support of 6 research organisations TECNALIA, CETIM, AICIA, IKERLAN, UNIOVI and RWDI.

The cooperative business R&D project entitled “New generation of photovoltaic technologies to reduce energy costs through circularity strategies”, with the acronym “SUNRISE PV”, has been subsidised by the Centre for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI) and supported by the Ministry of Science and Innovation within the 2022 call of the Science and Innovation Missions programme.

This initiative, which will run until 2025, proposes solutions and innovations in the different phases of the value chain (photovoltaic module, tracker or support structure, power converter, photovoltaic inverter, storage, plant operation and maintenance), focusing research on three points.

The first of these refers to new materials and manufacturing processes for photovoltaic modules and the rest of the components, achieving greater conversion efficiency and reducing manufacturing costs. The second aspect concerns new operation and maintenance processes for a more durable, efficient and reliable use of PV systems.

Finally, research covers new processes for the recovery and reuse of critical materials and components in the solar PV value chain to increase their usefulness and improve the environmental impact of the technology.

These three lines of action converge in a final objective, which is to optimise the production of renewable energy – of photovoltaic origin – with a reduction in the energy and economic cost of the technology (improvement of the LCOE), as well as to make significant progress in the efficiency, flexibility and management of photovoltaic plants, in an environment of environmental, economic and social sustainability.

Within the project, Técnicas Reunidas will lead research into new processes for recycling PV module components at the end of their useful life, specifically the recovery of valuable metals for the photovoltaic industry found in photovoltaic panels whose life cycle (both 1st and 2nd) has ended. 

The project, which has a total budget of €6.5 million, is expected to be completed by 2025, and has been funded by the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism under the Next Generation EU funds.