A timely research partnership between ACAP, UNSW and Neoen has delivered a ground-breaking 12-year industry roadmap for turning Australia’s end-of-life solar panels into feedstock for new solar panels.
In a recent seminar at UNSW, Australia’s foremost expert on solar panel recycling Dr Rong Deng said, “Solar panel end of life is a solvable problem.”
Dr Deng is a Research Fellow and lecturer with UNSW’s School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Engineering and leads Australian PV sustainability research for the IEA.
“It’s not just about getting rid of the waste and diverting it from landfill, it’s about creating a resilient circular economy and supply chain for the PV industry in Australia.”
Deng’s study, Solar Panel End of Life Management in Australia was supported by ARENA through the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP), and global renewable energy developer Neoen, which provided financial support as well as industry insights from the operation and management of utility scale PV.
The report identifies 10 critical steps required by government and industry to build a best practice, circular PV end of life sector in which material recovered from the old panels are used to manufacture new solar modules.
The study shows that by 2035, if we address current technical challenges and establish a circular solar recycling industry, Australian can potentially unlock a cumulative material sales revenue of over $1billion dollars.
And, by the end of 2050 we’ll have 3 million tonnes of material from solar panels.
She explains, “The cell technology will change but, if we look at the module level, the material composition is pretty much the same in 40 years. For a panel, we have the aluminium frame, a junction box, we'll have glass, we have silicon in the middle, and silicon will have some silver on it to conduct electricity.”
Current panels require less silicon and less silver compared to older panels. Deng’s report predicts that the materials extracted from one old panel will provide enough for three new panels.
“In five years, that waste reservoir can meet 30% of our annual demand [for new solar module production]. In 15 years, we can meet 50% of our demand, and in 25 years, we can meet 100% of our demand in Australia.
“In older panels, we used a very thick silicon wafer and lots of silver. And that's why, in 25 years, we can achieve that 100% circularity. That means by 2050 if we do everything properly, we do not need to dig anything from the earth. Our PV industry can sustain itself.”
Neoen’s support for the solar panel recycling feasibility study was part of the company’s bid for a 100 MW renewable energy contract with the ACT with its Goyder South Stage 1 wind farm in South Australia.
Head of Communications Lisa Steibel explained, “Neoen is Australia’s largest renewable energy company with over 1 GW of utilility-scale solar farms. We have a long term ‘develop to own’ business model and so our interest is in the entire life cycle of our projects and their technologies.”
“ACAP has a strong team working on end-of-life management for solar panels and were keen to partner with industry.
“We wanted to develop and share knowledge that would be useful to the renewable and waste industries, and for the ACT Government.
“The scoping study has provided us with a clear indication of the current state of solar panel recycling in Australia, and future opportunities. The ARENA support that ACAP secured for the project meant that it could have wider implications for future research.
“We’ve been impressed by the ACAP team’s expertise, flexibility and collegiality.”
Veolia also contributed to the study through industry insights on the current challenges faced by the recycling industry in Australia, and ACT NoWaste provided insights into the ACT’s waste and circular economy policy context.
Readers can watch Dr Rong Deng’s insight-packed seminar and view the slides here.
For those interested in finding out more about research partnerships with ACAP and the ACAP Industry Consortium please email acap@unsw.edu.au
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