A passport of digital product can support circular practices in the European PV industry by compiling the tracking of material composition, recycling and supplier information, crucial for material recovery.
Researchers from the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BUAS)working in the project financed by the EU “Go out Project, ”have developed a prototype of a passport of Digital Product (DPP) to support circular practices in the European PV industry.
The Platform based on DPP aims to improve data management and traceability in the PV value chain, making it easier to make effective end-of-life (EOL) management and circular economy practices.
Built in collaboration with nearly 70 industrial experts, the DPP prototype is a reaction to two critical challenges that confronts the European PV industry: excessive dependence on non-European production and the increasing wave of PV waste that is expected to be higher than 80 million tons worldwide by 2050.
The Horizon 2020 Project collection is a European initiative in which 16 partners from 10 countries are involved in promoting the high-quality recycling of materials from EOL PV modules. Although the project focuses primarily on promoting PV recycling technologies, two tasks are devoted to investigating the potential of digital technologies for optimizing circular practices. The development of one PV DPP Started almost four years ago as part of the Circusol projectin which a first prototype was made.
Since then, the European PV sector has experienced the dynamic development that is driven by the shifting of geopolitical and market conditions. This dynamic has exposed important challenges for industry players, while also emphasizing the requirements and incentives for accepting the DPP to improve the creation of circular value.
Collect data
To identify the most important requirements for the DPP, the research team from Bua’s first conducted a study among 70 experts in the field of solar industry. Based on the Product Circularity Datasheet (PCDS) Standard (ISO 59040)The survey was aimed at determining the most relevant data categories of the DPP for the realization of circular practices.
Respondents emphasized the importance of the material composition, recycling and supplier information of the products, because these data are crucial for improving transparency, guaranteeing compliance with regulations and making high -quality, cost -effective material repair.
The survey was supplemented with 15 in-depth interviews with stakeholders of the UP (manufacturers), mid (installers and service providers) and power supply PV value chain (EPR schedules and recyclers), as well as policy experts, not only to inform the technical development of the platform.
Insights from both the survey and the interviews immediately informed the DPP design, which translates identified data and service shelves into a modular system architecture. This structure enables PV actors to gain access to critical information about products and installations, which lays the foundation for making circular value and service innovation in the value chain.
For manufacturers, the DPP supports the traceability of the product, streamlining compliance with regulations and facilitates the assessment of sustainability. Installers benefit from access to historical and technical system data, which enable performance monitoring, predictive maintenance and more efficient management at the end of life. Recyclers receive early and detailed insights into material composition, so that the recycling processes can be scaled up more effectively. Regulators can use the platform to follow compliance and integrate the insights into the industry into the development and revision of circular policy.
DPP implementation
The next phase of DPP implementation focuses on integrating datasets from project partners to test and refine the functionality of the platform. At the same time, the BUAS project team actively invites extra stakeholders from the European PV chain to contribute data, use cases and feedback to ensure that the DPP platform meets various operational requirements. Pilot tests in real-world scenarios are planned to validate performance and to demonstrate value over different user groups and geographical regions, with special attention to interoperability with existing digital systems.
Data security and trust are also important priorities with measures to tackle data possession, confidentiality and access control. At the same time, efforts are underway to develop a viable business plan and to explore long -term paths for value creation, involvement of stakeholders and platform board after the pilot phase.
Finally, the project at policy level is working with regulators to tailor the platform to existing EU frameworks and argues for supporting updates that can accelerate circular business models in the entire industry.
Ässia Boukhatmi is a doctoral researcher at the Bern University of Applied Sciences and the Technical University of Berlin. She obtained a master’s degree in industrial engineering with a focus on renewable energy sources at the Technical University of Applied Sciences and the School of Economics and Law in Berlin, Germany. Her research is aimed at investigating the potential of digital technologies to promote the transition from the circular economy in the European solar industry.
Since 2011, Stefan Grösser has been working at the Bern University of Applied Sciences since 2011 and at the Department of Engineering and Computer Science since 2016. He is the dean of the Division on Industrial Engineering and Management Science and leads the research group “Strategy, Technology and Innovation Management”. He was promoted in management of the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. He is involved in European and national research projects to tackle social-technical challenges in the energy industry and health care.
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