Australia's first plant to recycle solar panel components starts operating at Lonsdale, south of Adelaide, 2021
Reclaim PV Recycling's plant at Lonsdale, south of Adelaide, was expected to process about 70,000 panels annually, diverting about 1,400 tonnes of waste from landfill each year.
Australia’s first solar panel recycling plant started operating at Lonsdale in Adelaide’s south in late 2021.
The plant was operated by end-of-life solar panels and collection network partners Reclaim PV Recycling that started operating with around 70,000 panels already partly processed at its Lonsdale site and its leased warehouse in Brisbane where another plant would operate.
The Lonsdale plant was expected to process about 70,000 panels annually, diverting about 1,400 tonnes of waste from landfill each year. Reclaim PV said 100% of solar panels it processed would be recycled and the materials extracted will be reused. The solar panels processed would have their valuable aluminium frames and junction boxes removed before being put into a furnace briefly to separate the glass from the solar cells. After the glass was removed, what’s left was subjected to pyrolysis: heating in regulated conditions to flash points for separating the elements. Reclaim PV said discharge effluent from the process was primarily carbon dioxide and water vapour.
Reclaim PV also was looking at testing panels to export those that still had a a useful life. The recycling fee was generally $10, excluding GST and freight, per panel. Reclaim PV was looking at setting up a drop-off network for the panels across Australia.
Australia’s rooftop solar installations were the highest in the world (on a per-capita basis), with about 50 million or 18.5giga watts (GW) installed (at September 2020) and research isuggesting more than one million panels needing to be replaced annually by 2031. With a coordinated approach to solar panel recycling needed in Australia, the federal government’s environment minister Sussan Ley told Australia’s solar industry in June 2021 an industry-led nationwide scheme design for dealing with solar panel had to be finalised by June 2022.