A charged view

Using discarded solar panels to make buildings can help deal with PV waste and give the cells a new lease of life

- ROHINI KRISHNAMURTHY

THE CENTRE for Sustainable Technologies, Indian Institute of Science (IISC), Bengaluru, is eager to unveil its new model residence. Located in Nelamangla, 30 km from IISC's campus, the house will not have occupants. Rather, it will be the site for a new research domain: sustainable use of solar panel waste as building materials.

"About 60 per cent of the building is made using decommissioned photovoltaic (PV) cells," says Monto Mani, associate professor at the Centre for Sustainable Technologies. Other materials include Mangalore tiles for roofing, and tin sheets and packaging wood to case the PV cells. The residence will be ready by the end of May.

The idea to construct a building using discarded PV cells first occurred to Mani in 2018, when his team wanted to extend their thermal testing facility. The institute did not have enough funds to build the facility. So Mani proposed substituting brick and cement with PV cells, which were decommissioned in 2016 and lying on the terrace of the department. The extension now serves as an end-of-life PV laboratory.