Dumping solar panels in landfill is an environmental disaster and a wasted opportunity. Now, a world-first research hub is pioneering their integration into the circular economy.
Harnessing solar energy is crucial for Australia to hit net-zero targets. But as adoption surges, poor end-of-life management of panels risks a major environmental crisis.
Currently, only a small fraction of solar panels are recycled, with most ending up in landfill, though this is already banned in some jurisdictions. In the ground, these panels can leach heavy metals such as lead and cadmium into soil and water, creating environmental and health risks including cancer and neurological damage.
Designed to last 25-30 years, solar panels installed en masse two decades ago will soon hit end-of-life. This means Australia’s 3.5 million solar installations could generate massive waste within a decade.
Professor of Metallurgical Engineering Yansong Shen told create this is a huge problem.
“Currently we don’t have the capacity to recycle large volumes of solar panels. By 2030, the cumulative PV waste will hit 8 million t. By 2050, it’ll reach 78 million t and higher.”
He said true net-zero success depends on solar panel recycling.
“Solar is key to net zero, but without robust panel recycling, we’ll never achieve 100 per cent.”
Turning harmful waste into valuable resources
Beyond protecting the environment and adhering to regulations, recycling solar panels unlocks valuable materials such as silver, silicon, glass, aluminium and copper – assets that exist alongside toxins in solar panels that are wasted in landfills.
For example, Yansong warns global silver stocks could deplete in five years at current PV panel production rates.
“Without recycling, we’ll lack silver for new panels, so we must extract it from old ones.”
The key to reducing photovoltaic (PV) waste and maximising its powers could lie in the Australian Research Council (ARC) Hub for Photovoltaic Solar Panel Recycling and Sustainability (PVRS), launched in April at the University of New South Wales and led by Yansong.
Funded by a $5 million grant from ARC’s Industrial Transformation Research program and support from industry partners, the hub is the world’s first and largest dedicated circular solar economy initiative.
This hub unites engineers, scientists, policymakers and industry experts with multiples missions:
- To recover materials from panels and turn them into valuable resources
- To develop improved technologies to separate and sort panel components more efficiently
- To manage gas emissions and waste liquids from recycling operations; transform recycled materials into high-value products
- To redesign panels so they’re easier to recycle
Each step will be tackled by a separate specialised team.
Yansong said extracting materials from solar panels may seem simple, but it’s highly complex.
“PV recycling is vastly different from PV manufacturing. Manufacturing converts raw materials into finished panels, while recycling reverses the process to reclaim materials from the end-of-life solar panels and sort them by efficiency and purity.
“The process demands far more energy and requires entirely new technologies.”
He describes solar panels as sandwiches: tough top glass and durable backsheet on the outside encasing a fragile solar cell in the centre.
“While it’s straightforward to remove the aluminium frame and glass, which is practised in current PV recycling industries, extracting metals from that inner solar cell layer is highly valuable but extremely challenging. Our goal is to develop the right technology to solve this problem.”
Yansong said more than 94 per cent of the materials in the solar panels can be recycled, though they won’t necessarily go back into the PV production – they may be used elsewhere in the metallurgy industry or even in surprising places.
“The standard of silver is so high we may even be able to use it in the fashion industry via collaboration with design researchers and industries.”
READ: When will it become economically viable to recycle solar panels?
Substantial economic gains
The hub’s research also promises economic wins across the solar value chain.
“We want to help build a robust recycling industry in Australia that creates jobs, supports new supply chains and improves our sustainable energy security,” Yansong said.
Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Matt Thistlethwaite, who officially opened the hub, said Australia, with its abundant sunshine, should take the lead in advancing the global solar recycling revolution.
“The stakes are real. If we get this right, there will be less landfill, new domestic supply chains for current materials, a more resilient energy sector and, perhaps most importantly, for students and early career researchers, new industries and new jobs that probably don’t exist yet,” he said.
Yansong adds that partnering with industry, government and the engineering industry will help cement Australia’s clean energy leadership, drive us towards zero PV waste and create a truly circular solar economy.
“We will know we’ve achieved our objectives when solar panel waste is no longer seen as a problem, but as part of a sustainable system,” he said.
