Solar Energy’s Biggest Problem Has Just Been Solved

Will Lockett

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Solar energy is simply incredible. It has one of the lowest carbon footprints of any energy source, is by far the cheapest energy we have ever had, and, unsurprisingly, is the most popular renewable energy. However, it also has a horrific and mostly unheard-of dark side that has the potential to decimate vast ecosystems. For years, this shady aspect of solar power has threatened to derail the solar movement, but a recent breakthrough may have just resolved this sorry situation. So, has solar energy been saved from itself?

Firstly, what is this dark side to solar power?

Well, I have already covered this in detail in my article “Solar Power’s Toxic Secret.” So, if you want a deep dive, go there. But the gist of it is that solar panels don’t last forever. After about 20–30 years, their output drops off a cliff, and they need to be replaced.

One of the significant issues here is that solar panels contain a lot of very toxic materials, such as cadmium, and due to their complex construction, they are insanely hard to dispose of properly, let alone recycle. This means that when companies or individuals look to dispose of their old panels, they either can’t find a place to dispose of them properly or can’t afford to. This has led to countless panels being bumped improperly, and these toxic materials then leach into the surrounding environment and cause havoc.

This isn’t currently a massive problem, as twenty years ago, there were practically no solar farms. But in the late noughties and early 2010s, solar power had a cultural boom, which means that after 2030, this mass replacement will pose a significant environmental risk.

The significant problem here is the cost of removing the toxic materials. The current process involves mechanical extraction and acid baths, both of which are expensive and complex. So, if we can devise a new method that is both cheaper and more scalable, we will be able to quickly solve this issue.

This is where a bunch of genius Aussie scientists come in.

A recent paper published by the University of New South Wales detailed a method of recycling solar panels that not only solves the cost problem but also the toxic waste problem. But how?

Their process involves taking the aluminium frame away and shredding the cell. This shredded material is then shocked with electrostatic electricity, which causes the materials within the cell to separate. This allows them to collect valuable materials like silver, copper, and glass from the cell, which can then be recycled. After this process, the “waste” material is only 2%-3% of the original solar panel’s mass, and this waste contains the vast majority of the toxic chemicals.

This waste material can then be passed on to another facility and disposed of far more cheaply than an entire panel, as the harmful material concentrations are much higher, which makes the acid bath separation process far more efficient. Alternatively, this waste can be left as is and disposed of in a way that isolates it from the environment. This is only possible because the electrostatic separation process has dramatically reduced the mass of the waste, meaning solar waste won’t overload such a facility.

Now, we don’t yet have an exact cost for this disposal method. However, because this method doesn’t involve dust management or processing chemicals and doesn’t emit any pollutants, it should be inexpensive and easy to build. This is because these three factors make building these facilities incredibly difficult and expensive, as topping up chemical costs loads, industrial dust filters are damn expensive, and finding sites that are okay with potential pollutants is few and far between. So, in theory, the cost of removing these valuable materials from the panel should be lower than the resale value of said material.

Using this method, a small and easy-to-set-up site can recycle 1,000 tonnes of solar panels annually. For some context, Australia is estimated to have 145,000 tonnes of solar waste per year by 2030. So only 145 of these sites are required to meet Australia’s solar waste recycling needs. That means they only need to build eighteen each year for the next eight years, which seems at the very least possible.

To make this even more exciting, the lead author of this paper is already looking to commercialise this technology. His startup, SOLARCYCLE, is looking to get these facilities set up in the U.S., where solar waste is already a big problem.

So has solar power been saved from itself? Possibly. This technology seems to solve this issue in theory, but we have yet to see the real-world cost. There is a chance that this method is still too expensive to prevent improper disposal of solar panels. But equally, if this technology is as affordable as it promises to be, and SOLARCYCLE can scale up production fast enough, then it will have averted an ecological disaster. So let’s keep our fingers crossed that SOLARCYCLE can deliver what it promises.