The adoption of renewable energy resources, such as solar power, is on the rise. However, the excessive installation and lack of recycling facilities pose environmental risks. This paper suggests a circular economy approach to address the issue. By implementing blockchain technology, the end-of-life (EOL) of solar panels can be tracked, and responsibilities can be assigned to relevant stakeholders. The degradation of panels can be monetized by tracking users' energy-related activities, and these funds can be used for future recycling. A new coin, the recycling coin (RC-Coin), incentivizes solar panel recycling and utilizes decentralized finance to stabilize the coin price and supply issue.
@article{arxiv.2403.09937,
title = {Blockchain-enabled Circular Economy -- Collaborative Responsibility in Solar Panel Recycling},
author = {Mohammad Jabed Morshed Chowdhury and Naveed Ul Hassan and Wayes Tushar and Dustin Niyato and Tapan Saha and H Vincent Poor and Chau Yuen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.09937},
year = {2024}
}