AGL weighs solar recycling as part of Loy Yang’s post-coal future

AGL Energy’s plan to transform Australia’s dirtiest coal plant into a renewable energy hub could now include solar panel recycling, in a new deal to consider setting up a PV materials recovery facility at the Latrobe Valley site.

AGL said on Thursday it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Solar Recovery Corporation to conduct a feasibility study into establishing a facility to “remanufacture” end-of-life solar panels at the Latrobe Valley Energy Hub.

SRC is the Australian owned partnership to Europe’s LME, whose purpose-built, patented technology is used to recover more than 99 per cent of materials from all type of end-of-life solar modules.

As well as exploring the potential for solar recycling at Loy Yang, the feasibility study will also look into training and employment opportunities for the local community to build the new skillsets required for the energy and manufacturing industries of the future.

AGL announced in September of last year that it will shut its Loy Yang A brown coal-fired power station – Australia’s largest single emitting industrial facility – in 2035, a decade earlier than originally planned, and replace it with 12GW of renewables and firming generation.

Already, the gen-tailer has plans to build a 200MW, four hour big battery at the site of the coal generator and had also tossed up the idea of a floating solar farm and electrothermal solar storage technology pilot there, too.

Whatever it eventually lands on, AGL chief operating officer Markus Brokhof says the MoU with SRC this week marks an important first step in the transformation of Loy Yang into an industrial renewable hub.

“It’s clear that the world is changing, and so is AGL,” Brokhof said.

“We are proud to be supporting SRC’s mission to find new ways to deal with end-of-life solar PV panels.”

Brokhoff says AGL will also recycle its own end-of-life solar panels at the company’s facilities as part of a joint effort to build a circular economy.

SRC chairman Rob Gell said the company was a good fit as potentially the first manufacturer to be part of AGL’s Latrobe Valley Energy Hub.

“SRC was founded as part of a circular solution for end-of-life solar PV panels and to repurpose the materials for manufacturing industries,” Gell said.

“It feels fitting that we are working with AGL as part of their ambition to reimagine the end-of-site transformation of AGL Loy Yang into a cleaner low carbon hub.”