title: Rooftop photovoltaic product stewardship transition in Australia using a novel systems approach and serious game
Creators: name: Salim, Hengky K
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: photovoltaic
subject: end-of-life (EoL)
subject: residential-scale PV panel
subject: causal loop diagram
subject: waste management

description: In the past decade, there has been an exponential increase on the PV adoption in Australia. However, concerns have been raised over the potential environmental and human health impacts from the photovoltaic (PV) panel waste generated once the technologies reach their end-of-life (EoL). Creating a circular economy system for this product is imperative to avoid these negative impacts and to unlock economic opportunities from recovering valuable materials inside the PV panels. However, with current recycling technologies and waste volume, it is not possible to achieve an economy of scale. Designing a product stewardship scheme coupled with landfill regulations are one way to mitigate this problem by incentivising producers to financially contribute to the collection and recovery activities. Promoting an effective waste management policy requires a holistic and systemic consideration due to the multi-faceted nature of stakeholder interests and goals in this system. Thus, the overarching aim of this research is to develop a systems model and a serious game that can explore different transition pathways toward managing EoL PV panels in Australia through a careful consideration into the causal relationships, feedback mechanisms, and time delays that are present in the system. This research selected the residential-scale PV panel sector as its case study because this sector makes up the largest number of PV adoption. This research started with identifying the knowledge gaps and synthesising the drivers, barriers, and enablers from the academic literature. These factors were then validated through an expert review process to adapt them to the Australian context. A stakeholder surveys was conducted to rank and compare these factors among different types of stakeholders to understand the problems that need to be addressed and the potential strategies to overcome them. Subsequently, a causal loop diagram (CLD) was developed to visualise the system structure and complexity where the model boundary was determined based on the previous information. The CLD was converted into a system dynamics (SD) model to perform a scenario analysis of different transition pathways (i.e. market-driven growth, conservative development, shared responsibility, and disruptive change). Finally, the SD model was converted into a serious game to communicate the model to stakeholders to improve their understanding and decision-making ability. The findings of this research suggested the importance of enabling a system of shared responsibility in managing EoL rooftop PV panels in Australia to require producers with substantial market share to participate in the product stewardship scheme. It is unlikely that under a voluntary arrangement, significant collection and recovery outcomes can be achieved since there is no incentive to participate in the product stewardship scheme. Mandating all producers to contribute to the scheme will also negatively impact the waste management cost that is internalised into the product price. The serious game is intended to convey and communicate these messages to decision-makers and industries to support their scheme design and assessment. Overall, this thesis has made significant theoretical contributions to the current body of knowledge as it shifts from a linear thinking to a systems thinking to solve a waste management problem in a holistic and systemic manner. The integration between a systems approach and a serious game also provided a new way of dealing with complex environmental problems, but also an innovative and engaging way to communicate the model and research findings to stakeholders to improve their decision-making process. It also has direct practical implications due to its close industry collaboration by supporting the on-going PV product stewardship scheme assessment.