A pilot project for the recycling, reuse and recovery of solar panels in Queensland was officially launched in Redlands yesterday.
The program appears to have its roots in an initiative announced last year, the first phase of which was to identify participants and locations to divert discarded rooftop solar panels from landfill. The project received further funding from the Queensland Department of Environment, Science and Innovation in April this year, and following additional support from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the pilot was expanded to include large-scale PV projects.
Working with the Smart Energy Council, the program will explore the feasibility of recycling and reusing unwanted solar panels from homes and solar farms in the state. with the aim of using the data and insights to develop guidelines for a national solution to PV module waste.
A total of 15 locations will take part in the program and six solar panel collection points have been confirmed so far – in Capalaba, North Lakes, Gold Coast, Rockhampton, Toowoomba and Townsville.
“Pioneer” in solar and PV recycling
Queensland leads the country in the use of rooftop solar energy based on the number of systems installed. To date, more than a million small systems have been installed. According to the Australian Photovoltaic Institute (APVI), the state is also a leader in saturation, with an estimated 51.3% of semi-detached and detached homes equipped with solar panels. Adding to the number of small rooftop installations are the millions of panels installed in solar farms across the state.
“Queensland is a leader in the penetration of rooftop solar and now we are also a leader in recycling these systems,” said Queensland Minister for Energy and Clean Economy Mick de Brenni. “By converting old solar panels into valuable resources, Queensland is boosting the circular economy and helping to build jobs, innovation and a cleaner future.”
The companies participating in the pilot project are:
- Rexel has experience in electronics recycling and has a facility to recover valuable materials from electrical accessories.
- Resolarcycle – whose mission is to ensure that working modules find a new home and any non-functioning modules are responsibly recycled.
- Solar Shift – repurposes unwanted solar assets by making them available for export to developing countries.
The Smart Energy Council will work with local authorities to roll out the scheme.
“It’s exciting to begin this important, nationally leading work,” said John Grimes, CEO of Smart Energy. “The recycling ecosystem is a critical part of securing the renewable energy transition into the future and provides insurance against future material limits such as copper and silver.”
According to this page on the Smart Energy Council website about the pilot, the goal is 30,000 panels; To date, just over 1,300 specimens have been collected. This seems quite modest given the scope of the project, so the target may be raised.
One million tons of solar PV waste in the pipeline
High-quality solar modules should have a lifespan of at least 25 years. Some premium solar modules now have warranties of up to 40 years. While it remains to be seen whether they will last that long, testing of a 31-year-old system in France using Kyocera modules was encouraging; This means that the panels were still producing 79.5% of their original output at this point.
But not all solar panels are of good quality and many poor PV panels have been installed in Australia that do not last their entire lifespan. There’s also the issue of system upgrades, where panels with significant life remaining may be discarded.
A scoping study by the Australian Center of Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP) found that the projected total volume of decommissioned modules in Australia will reach one million tonnes by 2035, and up to 100,000 tonnes of PV waste will be generated each year by the end of the decade. The majority of waste will not initially come from solar farms – it is estimated that by 2030 more than 80 percent of decommissioned solar modules will come from small systems.
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