As millions of solar panels reach their end of life in the next decade, innovative Australian companies are using technology to recover materials and avert them from landfill, writes Chris Ryan.
What goes up must come down. That’s an emerging problem for the Australian renewable energy industry, with millions of photovoltaic panels installed on roofs and erected at solar farms across the country.
With solar panels reaching their end of life at around 25 years, what happens to them after they are retired is a significant issue. Sustainability Victoria estimates more than 100,000 tonnes of solar panel waste could end up on the scrapheap by 2035.
It’s a daunting figure that plays into reservations about a solar revolution, with sceptics seizing on images of overflowing landfills and cluttered warehouses. But where some people warn of a looming environmental disaster, a range of innovators see an opportunity.
One company looking to turn the flood of used solar panels into a stream of revenue is Solar Recovery Corporation (SRC).
“We’re going to get hundreds of thousands of materials out of end-of-life solar panels,” says Rob Gell, sustainability advisor at SRC.
“The downstream process upcycles everything to create new value and generate new manufacturing for Australia. [It is a matter of] revaluing the materials. You still have governments talking about ‘recycling solar panels’ but that’s not it. We are a materials recovery company working in the circular economy, trading commodities.
“Someone is going to do something smart with the silicon – take it to nano-silicon and make it into a battery. We are working with the Australian Aluminium Council – they’re going to take our frames.
“Because they will have a continuous stream of this stuff, they will make it into higher-value aluminium ingot and we’ll get higher prices.
“We also have high-quality HDPE [high-density polyethylene] coming out of panels, and we are talking to a smart company that has new structural recycled plastic. We’re going to do ‘downstream upcycling’.”
SRC will use technology from La Mia Energia, an Italian consortium with a decade of experience recovering materials from end-of-life solar panels. Their patented clean technology claims to capture more than 99 per cent of materials from the panels without using crushing, chemicals, thermal processing or pyrolysis techniques.
AGL Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with SRC for a feasibility study into establishing a PV materials recovery facility in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley as part of the company’s commitment to repurposing AGL Loy Yang as Latrobe Valley Energy Hub.
“They understand where the industry is headed and they’re going to build renewable energy hubs,” says Gell.
“They will get into battery and solar panel manufacturing, and see us as a cornerstone because we’re going to recover the materials that go into those new manufacturing processes.”
SRC isn’t the only player in the market, which is a good thing because there will be plenty of used solar panels to go around.
“I reckon if we have 100 machines installed by 2050, it will only be 10-15 per cent of the market,” says Gell.
Another company seeking to give solar panels a second life is Elecsome.
“We have a pilot facility in Melbourne where we used it for research purposes, proving the process and system flow and validating the byproduct,” says Elecsome director Brendan Lloyd.
“Now we are transitioning to a factory that can process one panel every minute.”
Elecsome will recover precious metals such as copper, silver and aluminium, as well as professional-grade silicon, which is valuable to the semiconductor industry. The company has cooperative research programs with RMIT and the University of Melbourne, and has developed intellectual property (IP) of these processes.
“We’re keeping the process a little bit quiet to protect the IP, but it will be up and running in August 2023,” says Lloyd.
“We will have a grand opening and walk people through the process.”
One development Elecsome is happy to talk about is Solarcrete, a nano-engineered concrete aggregate produced from sand fines. Developed with their partners over four years, it allows concrete manufacturers to save 50-80 per cent of precious and limited river sand typically used in these products.
“Cement is one of the largest commodities currently around the world just for construction,” says Lloyd.
“We are solving the problem of needing to mine natural environments. We view it as modern-day mining.”
Lloyd is excited about the role his company can play in a clean energy future.
“We are at the leading edge with technology when it comes to replacing coal and gas,” he says.
“We want to do the best from a global-warming perspective, but why wouldn’t we want to evolve to something even better for a green and sustainable future?”