Key TakeawaysA delegation is petitioning the Albanese government for a mandatory national PV reuse and recycling scheme.The proposed scheme includes a mandatory stewardship levy on new solar panels to fund recycling efforts.Less than 5% of decommissioned solar panels are currently recycled, despite the technology to recover over 95% of materials.
A delegation of renewable energy industry leaders and representatives of solar recycling companies that say they are “on the brink” have gone to Canberra this week to petition the Albanese government, directly, on the urgent need for a mandatory national PV reuse and recycling scheme.
The group, led by the Smart Energy Council, will deliver a joint statement calling for a mandatory solar stewardship scheme to be set up sometime within this parliamentary term and a funded pilot program, in the interim, to inform scheme’s design and bolster investment.
The idea is to charge a mandatory stewardship levy on all new solar panels, whether imported or made in Australia, that would go into a central fund that would support the infrastructure and logistics needed for the efficient collection, reuse, and recycling of old panels.
The levy, which would be built in to the panel price, is mostly needed to cover the heavy cost of transport and logistics – that is, getting panels safely from their end-of-life location to a recycling facility – which is far greater than the cost of sending them to a local landfill.
The SEC has estimated that the levy could be set at around $10 per panel – but stresses the exact amount will be determined by the pilot program. It also stresses that whatever dollar/panel amount that is landed upon, it will be considerably cheaper than the up to $50 per panel being charged at some tips.
The joint statement delivered to federal parliament on Wednesday points to “a fatal flaw” in Australia’s rooftop solar success story “that threatens to undermine the principles of this renewable energy revolution, which is ensuring that circular economy principles are embedded.”
The SEC-led delegation will also seek to meet with the environment minister Murray Watt and federal treasurer Jim Chalmers to impress upon them both the urgency of the task, with an “escalating solar PV panel waste crisis looming… [and] serious environmental and social impacts set to follow.”
Underscoring the urgency is a spike in the number of panels coming off rooftops around Australia since the launch of the federal government’s Cheaper Home Batteries rebate, which is driving upgrades in rooftop PV systems to pair with discounted batteries.
Adding to the perfect storm is the fact that, until October last year, Australia exported up to 80% of its decommissioned solar panels for
reuse. This came to an abrupt end, however, due to the rapid price deflation of new panels, leaving a huge waste stream with nowhere to go.
SEC chief John Grimes says that of the millions of solar panels being decommissioned each year, currently less than 5 per cent are recycled.
“Not because we don’t know how – we can recover more than 95 per cent of the precious resources in modules – but because consecutive governments have failed to act on delivering a sustainable stewardship ecosystem, including design, reuse, recycling, and remanufacture.”
Meanwhile, fledgling PV recycling companies – like the Queensland-based Pan Pacific, which helped inform the solar stewardship pilot conducted by the SEC over the course of 2024-25 – have invested heavily on the promise of a national scheme that has not materialised.
“The recycling industry is on the brink,” the joint statement says. “Australia’s recycling industry has invested in world-class technology capable of 95%+ material recovery, but it is at risk of decline.
“Without a steady, reliable supply of panels – which this pilot would provide – recyclers cannot achieve economies of scale. They may shut down, risking the permanent loss of jobs, sovereign capability, and investor confidence.”
Ultimately, says the SEC, the biggest risk is missing the huge economic and resource recovery opportunity PV reuse and recycling presents. More than 95 per cent of a solar panel is recyclable and contains valuable materials including aluminium, glass, copper, silver, and silicon which can be recovered and reused.
Perhaps even more critically, the SEC estimates that around one-third of solar panels can be re-used instead of being thrown away – enough to contribute to a potential 24 gigawatts of energy by 2040 or to power six million homes a year.
“Time is up, and Australia’s renewable energy sector stands ready to act. This is a resource solution, rather than a waste problem,” Grimes says.
The joint statement is signed by a “broad coalition” of 60 industry, business, union, local government, community and environmental groups, including green iron and energy giant Fortescue, Clean Energy Investor Group, Australian Conservation Foundation and Master Electricians Australia.
