Reclaiming a cell is as easy as polishing off its surface layer, which contains most of defects, and resurfacing it.
A much more crude method just heats up the cell to the temperature where most defects from solar radiation disappear, but not hot enough for dopants to start diffusing more than they should, and then reselling it as a lower spec cell.
Large hail can break through a polycarbonate skylight or the tempered glass of a car, it’ll do the same to a solar panel covered in the same.
seems they're likely damaged by hail roughly the size of a golf ball, but in the link above they point to an example where 2.75in diameter hail did little damage to panels at NREL.
One thing about Climate Change is: more energy in the system means worse extreme events, and the less extreme events more often. But when is the cut over point?
The solar cells themselves are usually quite delicate, but the surrounding material keeps them safe in the case of weatherproof ones.
> A: Solar panel wastes include heavy metals such as silver, copper, lead, arsenic, cadmium, selenium that at certain levels may be classified as hazardous wastes.
> Q: What does data show? What are the constituents that make the panels hazardous?
> A: In general, data shows that older silicon panels may be hazardous due to lead solder. Some older silicon panels are hazardous for hexavalent chromium coatings. Cadmium tellurium (CdTe) panels are typically hazardous due to the cadmium. Gallium arsenide (GaAs) panels may be hazardous due to the arsenic. Thin film panels, such as copper indium gallium selenide (CIS/CIGS) panels, may be hazardous due to the copper and/or selenium.
> Q: What about electronic components associated with the solar panels? What are they hazardous for?
> A: The electronic components associated with the solar panels (e.g. drivers, inverters, circuit boards) contain all of the common electronic device hazardous constituents such as lead, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, and chromium.
Note that this is grouping together ALL kinds of cells, particularly cadmium telluride. These cells -especially gallium-based cells- are a small or tiny minority of solar panels.
The vast majority of solar panels do not contain any of these except copper and lead. Lead is actively in the process of removal, but the plan is to do so over the next decade or so. Regardless roughly 2000x more lead is used to make car batteries:
https://www.freeingenergy.com/are-solar-panels-really-full-o...