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Energy & Services
Recycled Content
Easily Replicable & Non-Industrial
Re-usable & Repairable
Technical
CIRCUSOL stands for “Circular Business Models for the Solar Power Industry”. It is an Innovation Action project funded by the Horizon 2020 program of the European Commission. CIRCUSOL aims to fully exploit circular business models’ potential, particularly Product-Service Systems (PSS), while realizing environmental, economic, and user benefits. CIRCUSOL wants to make the PV sector spearhead towards a circular economy through new business models based on product-service combinations.
Today, a supplier usually sells new PV panels and batteries to a user. The user then manages the installed solar energy generation and storage system. When the system’s life comes to an end, the solar panels and/or batteries are discarded and recycled or disposed of as waste.
In the PSS model envisioned by CIRCUSOL, a supplier provides solar energy generation and storage to a user as a service. The PV and batteries are installed at the user’s site, but the supplier remains the owner and is responsible for their optimal operation. When their useful life at the site has ended, the supplier takes them back and decides whether they can be given a second life and installed elsewhere or sent for recycling.
Business models for the PV sector based on Product-Service Systems (PSS)
3. Design for biological or technical loops
6. Incorporate system feedbacks
More info on circular principles
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