Solar recycling machine powers up as key export market closes to used Australian panels
Queensland’s first machine that can extract nearly 100% of materials from discarded solar panels has come online, just as a key market for secondhand panel reuse collapses.
Pan Pacific unveiled its recycling technology with the launch of its first production line that can recover up to 99% of the materials used in a panel, from silver through to silicon and glass.
The company is planning a second line at its Brisbane factory and an expansion into north Queensland – but it needs end-of-life solar panels.
The one line can handle about 20,000 panels a month.
That feedstock is readily available, but still difficult to coordinate as the supply chains to get decommissioned solar panels to recyclers are still in their infancy.
The scheme is the first coordinated attempt in Australia to build an end-to-end solar panel recycling industry, from collecting decommissioned panels to recycling to finding offtakers for the materials.
The Queensland government tipped more than $5 million into the pilot in April, which promised to recycle 30,000 panels.
An acceleration of efforts to reclaim valuable materials in end-of-life solar panels coming off rooftops and from solar farms comes as key export markets for second-hand Australian panels start to dry up.
Over the last four weeks, African offtakers have closed their doors to the higher-priced second-hand solar panels sent from Australia.
China’s stunning surge in solar panel manufacturing has torched prices, from a then-rock bottom price of 10 US cents a watt in April to 3.7 US cents a watt in August.
The pressure is now on to prevent a swathe of decommissioned but reusable panels from hitting landfills.