SunPower Maxeon solar panels installed in Australia have a place to go other than landfill once they (eventually) reach the end of their service lives.
Maxeon Solar Technologies and Reclaim PV Recycling announced yesterday the pair have entered into a partnership to support the recycling of SunPower branded solar panels from Maxeon in Australia.
“Our partnership with Reclaim PV in Australia is a tangible demonstration of our commitment to ESG principles and goals, similar to our Cradle-to-Cradle certification which is the global standard for products that are safe, circular and responsibly made,” said Maxeon’s Chris O’Brien.
Reclaim PV won’t be just be recovering materials, but also storing important information on those materials.
“The importance of the data recording and supply mapping process is that we are able to bring transparency to the material recovery and supply process and can now make informed decisions on how we can in part replace the use of virgin mined materials within other industries with recycled materials from solar panels,” said Reclaim PV Recycling Director Clive Fleming.
Reclaim PV could be waiting quite some time for any volume of retired SunPower panels as they are really built to last and pretty pricey, so not as many are installed here compared to budget brands.
Indicating how confident Maxeon is in the longevity of its products, in February this year the company announced product and performance warranties on SunPower Maxeon solar panels installed in Australia had been extended from 25 years to 40 years. The warranties on the cheaper (but still very good quality) SunPower Performance ( P series) panels remains at 25 years.
It’s also possible some SunPower panels could end up at Reclaim PV that still have some valuable years left in them – for example, resulting from solar system upgrades. Perhaps these panels may get a second life as Reclaim PV Recycling and the Circular PV Alliance (CPVA) have teamed up to work together to develop standards and testing procedures supporting the reuse and resale of second-hand solar panels in Australia.
Solar Panel Recycling Could Be Worth Big Bucks
Just about all of the components that make up a solar panel can be recycled. Some of the materials are quite valuable; including aluminium, silver, copper and polysilicon. The tricky bit is separating all of the materials, which is still costly. But separation and retrieval processes are continually being refined.
Recent analysis from Rystad Energy indicates recyclable materials from end-of-life panels will be worth more than USD $2.7 billion globally in 2030, up from only $170 million this year.
” This trend will only accelerate in the coming decades and the value of recyclable materials is projected to approach $80 billion by 2050,” said the firm.
A scenario developed by Rystad indicates 1.4TW of solar installations in 2035. The PV recycling industry could potentially supply 8% of the polysilicon, 11% of the aluminium, 2% of the copper, and 21% of the silver needed by recycling panels installed in 2020. That scenario assumes just a 15-year lifespan for a module, but good quality solar panels used in residential or commercial applications should last far longer assuming competent installation.
Just on solar panel recycling generally in Australia, in June last year then-Federal Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley put the solar industry on notice that an industry-led nationwide scheme design for dealing with PV waste must finalised by June this year. With Australia now under new management, it’s not clear where things stand currently.
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