The sometimes illegal export of damaged and broken solar panels is causing added headaches for Australia’s nascent PV recycling industry, which is already struggling to survive as it awaits a long-delayed pilot scheme that it hopes will support the industry.
Australia has succeeded in reducing the number of end-of-life solar panels shipped off to other countries, thanks to legislative changes and plunging prices. But it is still going on, says James Petesic, a co-founder of solar recycling company PV Industries, and it’s adding to the woes of the local solar waste management industry.
Petesic says that – despite reports of used and damaged solar modules piling up in landfills and suburban back yards – the solar recycling industry is struggling to secure enough panels to survive.
“We are on the coalface of this industry and seeing where we’re losing panels to,” Petesic said in the latest episode of Renew Economy’s Solar Insiders podcast.
“When we speak to installers, more often than not the response, particularly two years ago, was ‘I’m sorry, I’ve already got someone that gives me $5 a panel, $10 a panel, whatever figure they were getting paid.
