AGL Energy & Elecsome Sign Solar Recycling Partnership

• Under an MoU, AGL Energy and Elecsome will explore the feasibility of adding solar PV recycling and solar cable production
• Both these proposed plants are to be located within AGL's Hunter Energy Hub in New South Wales
• Under stage 2, they plan to explore extracting high value materials like silicon wafer, and aluminum frames

Australian energy supplier AGL Energy has joined hands with local solar panel recycling company Elecsome for a solar panel recycling plant and solar cable manufacturing plant. If all goes well, the duo says it will be the country's maiden onshore solar recycling and cables manufacturing facility onsite.

The manufacturing factory is proposed to be located at AGL's Hunter Energy Hub Bayswater e-Recycling Precinct. It is the location of now shuttered Liddell Coal-Fired Power Plant in Hunter region of New South Wales (NSW).

Elecsome has developed a patented technology to use the glass that accounts for over 70% of solar panels to create SolarCrete. It is a pre-mixed concrete that can be used for construction activities such as driveways and footpaths.

If feasible, it will be Elecsome's 1^st commercial-scale solar panel recycling facility in NSW with capacity to upcycle up to half a million residential and grid-scale solar panels/year. It already operates an upcycling facility in Melbourne.

The proposed solar cable manufacturing plant will be able to produce up to 20,000 km of solar cable/year for use in residential, commercial and utility scale solar installations.

Under the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed, the 2 partners plan to carry out the engineering and infrastructure requirements. The scope of work also includes ascertaining key environmental and regulatory approvals required for the development, construction and operation of both facilities.

For the 2^nd stage, they plan to add a 2^nd stage to the recycling plant under which high value materials will be extracted from the panels for the Hunter Energy Hub. These materials could be silicon wafer for re-use in solar PV and other electrical appliances, and aluminum frames for cans and new solar PV frames.

"Since the closure of Liddell Power Station one year ago, we have signed MOUs that could bring battery recycling with Renewable Metals and solar panel manufacturing with SunDrive to the Hunter Energy Hub. Today we add solar panel recycling and solar cable manufacturing to that list of partners," said AGL General Manager, Energy Hubs, Travis Hughes.

Recently, AGL announced plans for a solar module manufacturing plant within the Hunter Energy Hub with SunDrive. The hub is also planned to host 500 MW/2 hour grid-scale Liddell battery for the site that transforms Liddell and Bayswater Power Station sites into a low-carbon integrated energy hub (see AGL & SunDrive Partner For Solar PV Manufacturing Factory).