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Queensland's First Solar Panel Recycling Plant Opens

Recycling and Waste Management

Business Honor
07 October, 2024

Facility to dismantle and recycle 240,000 solar panels annually, reducing waste in renewable industry.

A revolutionary recycling facility for solar panels has opened in Queensland, to process 240,000 panels yearly. Located in the southern Brisbane suburbs, the Pan Pacific is Queensland's first-of-its-kind facility. The facility can break down solar panels fully back to their core materials, such as precious metals, glass, and raw minerals, and is part of a pilot program by the Smart Energy Council that was funded by the Queensland government.

Director John Hill explained that though the recycling process is complex, it is also very efficient. It takes 50 seconds to remove the glass, which is 80% of the weight of the panel, and 30 seconds for the rest of the materials. The glass is crushed and then recycled, but the metals and minerals are carefully separated for their reuse.

Robyn Cowie from the Smart Energy Council indicated that such plants are extremely vital for Australia to have in terms of a possible future regarding renewable energy; added that those recovered materials are destined to mitigate those potential future shortfalls, with recycling solar panels additionally important not to end up waste in a land fill.

Despite the potential, the solar panel resale market has slowed, especially with China's highly subsidized solar industry affecting the global market. Cowie warned that an estimated 1.2 million solar panels will be decommissioned in Queensland next year, with a substantial portion of those now destined for landfills due to a lack of demand for second-hand panels.

Hill has been working on solar panel recycling for the last two decades and believes this facility is a model for future plants in other states, aiming to reduce the environmental impact of solar energy production and ensure sustainability in the renewable industry.