Australia’s solar panel waste problem is growing every year

The annual level of solar panel waste generated in Australia is expected to increase by 30,000 tonnes by 2030, according to projections from the federal government department working to develop the national recycling plan.

In January, the federal government announced a $24.7 million three-year solar panel recycling pilot to develop a national plan for solar waste treatment.

The pilot aims to collect up to 250,000 solar panels from 100 locations across the country and collect data on how best to recycle them.

At a Congressional committee hearing today, officials from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water described some of the challenges faced by the pilot.

Cameron Hutchison, from the department’s packaging, management and investment division, said the recycling problem may be bigger than the federal government expected.

“At the end of last year, around 60,000 tonnes of solar panels were reaching the end of their lifespan in Australia, and current projections suggest that could be around 90,000 tonnes by 2030,” he said.

“However, this number may be a bit of an underestimate, and there are efforts in the industry that are starting to question this number.

“Part of that is based on the fact that we think solar panels will last about 20 years.”

Mr Hutchison said this lifespan was “shortening” with the advent of new technology and better panels.

“People are replacing faster…The problem exists, it’s known, and it’s probably even bigger than we expect,” he said.

James Tregartha, from the department’s circular economy division, told the committee that the logistics of moving discarded solar panels to disposal facilities make many of the panels unrecyclable.

“Glass is heavy and can break if not handled properly, creating glass shards that are difficult to recycle,” he says.

“From our perspective, transporting intact panels from the field to recycling facilities in a way that maintains recyclability is one of the key challenges.”

According to the Federal Government, around one in three Australian households have installed roof panels, making the country one of the highest users of the technology.

Australia could generate up to 145,000 tonnes of waste by 2030, according to estimates released by the International Energy Agency in 2016 for the disposal of used solar panels.

Initial government projections, compiled from industry self-reported data, suggest that up to 50 million solar panels could be discarded by 2035, equivalent to around 1 million tonnes of waste.

Australia does not yet have a national dataset to track solar panel waste and the number of products sent to landfill or recycled.

“There are a lot of challenges around the logistics of getting it to the right place and in the right condition,” Hutchison said.

“We know that about 90% of panels can be recycled if the right systems are used in the right conditions.

“We need to do a lot more work to understand how to build that system and support that system in Australia.”

Why are people throwing away their solar panels?

Mr Tregartha said many Australians were discarding their rooftop solar panels in favor of newer models that were cheaper and more efficient.

“For the past five to 10 years, the top-end panel output would have been 330 kilowatts. Now it’s 450 kilowatts, so that’s 25 percent better and cheaper,” he said.

“The reason for the lower prices is effectively due to the significant expansion of production, especially in some Asian countries.

“As people look to generate more power from their roofs, or in the case of commercial ventures, how can you improve your bottom line by getting more efficient panels that produce more power for a lower investment?”

Mr Tregartha said there was limited evidence that Australians were choosing to reuse old solar panels.

“What we generally find is that once the panels are removed from the roof and sent to the waste disposal stream, the proposal to reuse is likely uneconomical given the amount of testing.” [and] It’s the maintenance you have to do,” he said.

“We have received proposals for use in local housing, facilities, volunteer organizations, etc. [and] Scout hall.

“The challenge is making sure it’s safe because you’re taking the whole system apart and putting it back somewhere else.”

Tregatha said the federal pilot is also aimed at evaluating best practices for mitigating toxicity and electrical safety risks associated with solar panel waste.

The committee said the government was still in the early stages of finding an organization to run the pilot.

“We expect to be able to begin piloting and go live by the end of the financial year,” Hutchison said.

“From there, the pilot will run for 12 to 18 months, where we are actually extracting data and learning.

“We are truly at the forefront of this space. Australia is a leader in solar power deployment.”