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Solar waste problem looms following rooftop panel boom, with batteries to add to the pile
Australia's rooftop solar revolution has slashed power bills and emissions, but behind the good news story, is a growing waste problem in need of an urgent solution.
The industry is sounding the alarm, warning Australia is about to be hit with a tsunami of solar waste as more households take up batteries, thanks to the federal government's new subsidies.
Currently around 4 million homes across the nation have installed solar, equating to more than 150 million panels nationwide when commercial and large-scale systems are included.
But as as households upgrade to newer systems, an estimated 4 million individuals panels are decommissioned every year.
That figure is set to double to 8 million a year, as Australians install batteries.
Currently, there is no mandatory recycling scheme for solar panels.
As a result, only about 10 per cent of panels are recycled. The rest are stockpiled, sent overseas or end up in landfill.
The solar industry has been waiting since 2016 for a national product stewardship scheme — a mandatory system that would fund recycling through an up-front levy on imported or manufactured panels.
Instead, recyclers and investors are being left in limbo.
"There's been investor fatigue," says Darren Johannesen, executive general manager of sustainability at the Smart Energy Council.
While there are seven active solar panel recyclers in Australia they face steep economic and logistical hurdles.
"Right now, it can cost up to $38 per panel just to get it from a house to a landfill or recycler," Mr Johannesen says.
"Even then, the cost of extracting valuable metals like silver and copper outweighs the resale value of those materials.
"Recyclers can't make it work on their own."
Without government intervention, there is concern the sector could collapse under its own weight.
In Western Sydney, recycler James Petesic has seen competitors come and go.
"Seven years since we've been in operation, I think we've seen at least two or three businesses come and go."
He's managed to hang on, largely thanks to federal government grants.
He says the real challenge is not competition from other recyclers, but from exporters and scrap dealers who offer to take old panels for free or pay cash.
"They are able to pay customers — being the installer themselves — to move that system from their warehouse, put it into a container and ship it overseas.
"Unfortunately, we're not able to compete with that. We can't pay customers for their panels."
Some of those panels may be reused, he says. But many won't be.
New laws regulating the export of solar panels have stopped some of the leakage of panels out of Australia but it has not solved the broader problem.
Without certainty around the raw materials needed — that is, the solar panel to recycle, Mr Petesic says "it's really hard to give an investor confidence to invest in our business".
About 20 per cent of solar installer Jake Warner's current jobs include replacing old panels.
"Sometimes it can be workmanship, maybe an older system can fail.
"It's also increased technology, we now have battery systems, we've got integrated inverters and more efficient solar panels."
On a job in St Clair, New South Wales, his crew is ripping out a decade-old solar array to make way for a more efficient set-up, complete with battery storage and smarter inverters.
Mr Warner says it is common to be approached by scrap metal dealers and other operators offering cash for removed panels — some of whom ship them offshore with little oversight.
"We've had people pull up mid-job asking to take the panels," he says.
"They end up overseas sometimes, maybe on a hobby farm or in a developing country, which isn't the worst outcome.
Currently, Mr Warner's business takes retired panels back to base and passes them on to approved recyclers or second-life users.
But the costs — anywhere from $250 to $650 per household depending on panel numbers — are worn by customers.
He says while some reputable solar wholesalers offer recycling drop-off points, the infrastructure isn't ready to cope with what's coming.
"We can actually recycle up to 85 per cent of the raw materials inside solar panels, but right now the challenge is that we don't really have these recycling facilities ready at scale like what we're going to need in the next 10 years or so," Mr Warner says.
It's not just an environmental problem — it's an economic one. Experts warn the world is running short on critical minerals.
"The opportunity in front of us is quite exciting in a solar module — there are metals that are in short supply, copper and silver," the Smart Energy Council's Mr Johannesen says.
The International Energy Agency has forecast a potential 30 per cent supply shortfall in copper globally, without action.
"The IEA is recommending that all countries adopt a regulatory policy framework that encourages recycling … so that we can use urban mining to bridge that 30 per cent gap," Mr Johannesen notes.
Everyone in the sector agrees the solution is simple — and long overdue.
"A national product stewardship scheme will cut costs to consumers, improve efficiency in the industry and birth an important materials recovery industry, which is good for jobs and growth," Mr Johannesen argues.
There's been plenty of talk about implementing a mandatory national recycling scheme for solar panels from both sides of politics.
But after nearly a decade of inaction, the industry says time is running out.
"Nine years is a long time … and with the growth in the module volumes, the time to act is now."
Mr Petesic says if we don't act now, we'll be throwing away the very resources we need to power Australia's energy future.
"We need some kind of government push to encourage and facilitate the industry, to be able to participate in the recycling of their solar panels, rather than leave it up to their good conscience."
