Australia’s solar PV recycling plans on hold after flagship pilot project suspended

Plans to build a national solar PV recycling program in Australia are on hold, after the country’s flagship pilot was quietly suspended in May, with no indication of when it might restart.

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW) hit pause on the first stage after receiving a complaint about the pilot administrator procurement process.

Since then, industry advocates and businesses have been left in an information blackout, Renew Economy has been told.

The $24.7 million solar recycling pilot was announced in January to much fanfare, alongside a strongly-worded Productivity Commission report outlining the urgent need to find a solution for rising volumes of end-of-life solar panels. 

The pilot is due to set up 100 collection sites around the country to test how to collect, transport and pay for waste solar panels. The data will then be used to design a mandatory stewardship scheme.

The tender to find the pilot administrator closed on April 26 and three weeks later DCCEEW stopped the process.

“We wish to advise you that this procurement has been suspended,” says the DCCEEW letter, a copy of which was sent to Renew Economy.

“This suspension is required under the Government Procurement (Judicial Review) Act 2018 (Cth) while a procurement complaint is being investigated.

“Accordingly, the evaluation process will not progress until the suspension is lifted.”

A DCCEEW media advisor would not comment on the complaint process, citing the ongoing investigation.

They did say the government “remains committed to the pilot and is working to appoint an administrator.”

DCCEEW did not respond to questions about when the pilot will start.

Environment minister Murray Watt did not respond to questions about whether the minister’s office will intervene to get the long-awaited pilot back on track.

Industry disappointed, worried

The lack of information from DCCEEW over the last nine weeks is shattering for the industry, which has spent years working to persuade the government to take action on the solar panel waste issue. 

The administrator was supposed to have been locked in and the pilot starting now.

PV Industries founder James Petesic says a long delay could be “terminal” for the nascent sector, which has already seen a number of businesses collapse over the last five years. 

“The biggest issue for our industry is securing feedstock,” he tells Renew Economy.

“Part of the stewardship scheme is not only will we be able to offer our services for zero cost, but there will be a landfill ban. So it will turbo charge solar recycling.

“If we can’t get feedstock, we can’t get investment. And if we can’t get investment, the industry can’t grow.”

In Brisbane, Pan Pacific founder John Hill says the feedstock issue is “pretty bloody severe” right now as companies are taking solar panels for free and stockpiling in the expectation they will be able to on-sell to the government pilot. 

Read: Can’t recycle solar? This local business is making millions from copper, aluminium sales

“That puts us into a catch 22 because we charge a gateway fee, as that’s how we make money, and they’re doing it for free,” he told Renew Economy.

Hill says it’s limiting their ability to bring in new supply, needed for a second recycling machine coming online and potentially a third. 

The company is also counting on the scheme being operational for when they launch in Western Australia. 

“The announcement for the scheme was made back in January and here we are in July, with no action, and no action planned. I think people in power need to take a hard look at it,” he says. 

The Smart Energy Council (SEC), which has led the charge for a recycling industry, has called the estimated 91,165 tonnes of solar panel waste in 2030 a “$6.5 billion opportunity”, through recovery of materials such as aluminium, glass, copper, silver and silicon.

Suzanne Toumbourou, the chief of the Australian Council of Recycling, says the pilot delay will have ripple effects across the industry.

“We had strongly been led to expect that this pilot would kick off a month ago, or at least we’d have some certainty about its direction,” she tells Renew Economy.

“Solar panel recyclers are in dire and recognised need to be supported to do the job that is expected with end of life solar panels and we’re surprised with the delay and with the lack of information. 

“It’s not viable for this to continue indefinitely with absolutely no certainty about the future of the program.”

Ripple effects

It will also have ripple effects across the country on state recycling actions, which are to be based on data from the pilot.

New South Wales (NSW) took up the baton, leading work on a regulatory impact statement that, alongside the pilot and the first SEC-backed trial in Queensland in 2024 is supposed to help design the national scheme during 2026 and 2027.

The state was already looking at a mandatory stewardship scheme before an Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council meeting in August last year set the recycling stewardship scheme in motion. 

In June, Western Australia began moving towards its own collection system by setting aside $13 million in the budget for new collection, transport, and processing pathways for end-of-life solar panels from both households and solar farms in the state.

Renew Economy understands there are questions in the industry around the fitness of DCCEEW to deliver the pilot, following the packaging, plastic and clothing stewardship schemes which have failed to deliver on expectations.

Even DCCEEW’s own Capability Review, released in June, casts doubt on the department’s delivery abilities.

The review rated DCCEEW as “developing” when it came to strategy and implementation and “emerging” for review and evaluation. 

A developing rating means there is “inconsistent current capability”, it has limited ability to forecast future capability or opportunity gaps, limited evidence of learning from others, and limited focus on continuous improvement.

An emerging rating is the lowest level, with each capability listed as “little or no” ability.

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