Case Study
Second Life Solar
Creating Value from Solar Panel Waste
What we did and why
Australia leads the way in rooftop solar installations, but solar panels are emerging as a growing source of waste and many of the solar panels currently being disposed of have many years of service life remaining.
The International Renewable Energy Agency notes that solar panels are designed to operate for 25-30 years but as people upgrade to larger solar systems for their homes and businesses, they are disposing of solar panels that are less than 10 years old because they don’t know what else to do with them.
In fact, 99.97% of Australia’s PV capacity has been installed since 2010 meaning that almost 100% of PV waste streams that are being disposed of into landfill are less than twelve years old.
With this earlier than expected retirement of PV systems we estimate that Australia will accumulate up to 1 million tonnes of solar panel waste by 2033 — if laid down end to end these PV panels would encircle the Earth 3 times.
Many of these panels are expected to be fully serviceable and in the next 10 years we estimate that Australia is potentially set to dispose of 8.1GW worth of fully serviceable solar panels which is equivalent to all of the solar panels installed in Australia between 2017 and 2019.
In this project we set out to establish a new whole-of-supply chain business model and secondary marketplace that will divert serviceable decommissioned solar panels from landfill for reuse in community solar gardens.
The Case for Solar Panel Reuse in Australia
Download a copy of our report outlining the potential of solar panel reuse in Australia.
We estimate that Australia is potentially set to dispose of 27GW worth of fully serviceable solar panels by 2043 which is equivalent to all of the solar panels installed in Australia today.
How we did it
From Challenge to Solution
How we used our innovation framework to go from problem to solution
Define the Mission
The first step in developing any sustainability solution is to be clear on the mission – what you are trying to achieve. For this project the mission was to address this rapidly growing waste stream by contributing to the creation of a circular solar industry and creating a pathway for the reuse of serviceable solar panels at scale.
With this earlier than expected retirement of PV systems we estimate that Australia will accumulate up to 1 million tonnes of solar panel waste by 2033 — if laid down end to end these PV panels would encircle the Earth 3 times.
Understand the Problem
Many sustainability solutions fail because they create a solution without properly understanding the problem. In the case of end of life solar panels many studies assumed that solar panels would remain in services for their full service life however…
When we reviewed recent literature and undertook interviews with consumers, solar installers, Councils, and industry experts we found that PV panels are entering the waste stream much earlier than expected due to a variety of reasons including:
- Whole system of panels gets removed when only a few panels are damaged as is often the case after storm events.
- If the panels are still under warranty, the manufacturer often pays to replace the whole set, even when only a few are faulty. This means working panels are removed alongside the faulty panels and disposed of in landfill.
- Solar panels have become a commodity. Just like upgrading your mobile phone, homeowners are upgrading their systems to larger, newer, more efficient systems with a new warranty.
- The Government small-scale technology certificate incentives aimed at rolling out more solar panels actually incentivise consumers to replace their entire solar array rather than repair.
- Roof upgrades, renovations and other building works result in systems being removed and combined with disincentives created by the Clean Energy Regulator guidelines means it can be cheaper to install a new system rather than reinstate the old one.
- Finally, the life of solar inverters is usually 10-12 years, much shorter than the 30-year life span of the panels themselves. Some people use this as an opportunity to install a new set of solar panels when they change their inverters.
Our research and customer discovery process suggested that whilst PV panels are designed to operate for 30 years, in practice the average “in-service” life span of PV systems is closer to 15 years for many of the reasons listed above.
Market Size
When designing any sustainable solution it is important to understand the scale of the impact you can make. In this stage of the project we undertook an analysis of the projected waste volumes and also conducted some R&D with CSIRO.
Data on the total volume of PV waste being disposed of is not readily available at a national scale and therefore current projections are based on estimates and a range of assumptions.
The same is true for solar panel reuse.
In order to develop an estimate of the potential market size for solar panel reuse we undertook a project in partnership with CSIRO and Dubbo Regional Council. This projected was supported by the NSW EPA Circular Solar Grants program.
We tested a small sample size of PV panels destined for landfill and found that 46% of these panels were fully servicable. These panels ranged in age from 11-15 years old. Images from the laboratory tests are shown below.
Based on this data we estimate that by 2030 Australia could potentially redeploy 8GW of reused PV from panels that would otherwise be disposed of by 2035 generating an estimated economic value of $38.4 Billion.
In the absence of a planned and regulated PV panel reuse market Australia is potentially set to dispose of 34.6 GW worth of fully serviceable solar panels by 2045 which is more than all of the solar panels installed in Australia today with an estimated economic value of $167 Billion.
Design a Solution
Following the market and laboratory research we developed a preliminary concept to activate a secondary market for PV panel reuse called Second Life Solar.
The concept was that Second Life Solar would reuse fully functional solar panels that were destined for landfill in behind the meter community solar gardens to deliver renewable energy and circular economy outcomes for commercial customers.
Second Life Solar would also recycles solar panels that are end-of-life and not suitable for reuse.
Prototyping
To prevent your idea from failing you should validate your solution through prototyping and piloting.
In mid 2022 we installed a first-of-its-kind project, installing a small solar system made up of second hand (serviceable) solar panels at the Whylandra Waste and Recycling Centre in Dubbo NSW.
This allowed us to validate the test procedure, understand the technical and standards requirements for reuse, and validate the unit economics of PV reuse compared with recycling.
Spoiler alert – a reused solar panel is 133 times more valuable that a recycled one.
Build an MVP
After successfully demonstrating and validating a viable business model to allow the establishment of a secondary marketplace for reused solar panels we created and launched Second Life Solar which offers a commercial service to divert used PV panels from landfill.
Second Life Solar works with solar installers to facilitate the testing, reverse logistics and reuse of fully functional solar panels that were destined for landfill in behind the meter community solar gardens to deliver renewable energy and circular economy outcomes for commercial customers.
Second Life Solar also partners with recyclers to ensure solar panels that are end-of-life and not suitable for reuse are recycled.
Awards
Second Life Solar has been recognised by leading industry groups as a winner of the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Impact Challenge, as a finalist in The Circle Awards AUS & NZ 2022, and as a finalist in the 2022 NSW Banksia Awards.
Next Steps?
Second Life Solar is continuing to evolve and is now working with early customers to continue to develop solutions to solar panel waste including exploring the opportunity to remanufacture new solar panels from old solar panels.
If you would like to learn more or get involved you can visit the Second Life Solar website.
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