Australia is planning a national stewardship scheme to manage solar panels from installation to end-of-life
It estimates solar panel waste in the country to nearly double by 2030, mainly from residential rooftop systems
Recycling and reuse could unlock 24 GW of energy potential by 2040, powering millions of homes, according to the Smart Energy Council
Australia is set to devise a plan to manage solar panels from start to end-of-life after the federal, state, and territory governments agreed on a national product stewardship scheme for solar panels. The plan is to stop solar PV panels from going to landfill by promoting recycling and reuse.
The country estimates its annual solar panel waste volume to nearly double over the next 5 years, from 59,340 tonnes in 2025 to 91,165 tonnes in 2030. Most of it is likely to come from the residential segment in metropolitan cities. Volumes will begin to grow in regional areas from large-scale solar facilities after 2030.
However, according to the Smart Energy Council, around 1/3rd of end-of-life solar panels could be reused, contributing up to 24 GW of energy by 2040, enough to power 6 million homes annually.
“It's been a decade since the federal government acknowledged solar panels going into landfill was a problem. Now, four million panels are coming off roofs a year with less than 5% being recycled,” said Smart Energy Council CEO John Grimes. “The time for talk has passed, an immediate first step is a national solar stewardship pilot to keep the industry alive and inform the Regulatory Impact Statement.”
The State Government of New South Wales (NSW) is taking the lead, presenting a paper advocating preparation of a national scheme for solar panels at the recent meeting of the Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council. This paper was prepared on the same lines as a mandated stewardship program NSW is currently developing for batteries. Next, it will prepare a regulatory impact statement.
"A national solar panel stewardship scheme is a major opportunity for Australian jobs,” according to Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union NSW/ACT State Secretary, Brad Pidgeon. “Remanufacturing and recycling panels here means more onshore work in the renewable energy supply chain instead of shipping valuable materials offshore or losing them as waste.”
In 2024, Queensland launched a pilot program to recycle solar panels with AUD 2.5 million in funding to be managed by the Smart Energy Council. This recovery pilot, it said, will enable the development of a national product stewardship scheme (see Australian State Government To Fund Solar Panel Recycling Pilot).