🔒What happens to solar panels at the end of their useful life? Working group makes recommendations with cost implications

After months of back-and-forth discussions with industry leaders and experts, a state working group has developed recommendations for how solar panels and batteries should be recycled when they’re at the end of their useful life.

However, there wasn’t unanimous agreement on the recommendations, which could help shape new legislative proposals during next year’s session.

At stake, potentially, is determining how the state and private sector manage defunct solar panels and the stationary battery storage systems they use, and who foots the bill — consumers, manufacturers, installers, etc. — for recycling programs, which will add to the costs of clean energy projects.

Lithium-ion batteries are commonly used for solar energy storage, and typically last between 10 to 15 years, while solar panels have an average life span of 25 to 35 years, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The End-of-Life Working Group — made up of representatives from the Connecticut Green Bank, state agencies, solar manufacturers and energy experts — submitted recommendations to the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) on Aug. 1.

The working group recommends the state adopt an “advanced fee administration” program for third party-owned residential solar projects, where a fee would be assessed when solar panels are purchased or installed to cover future recycling costs. That fee could come from the buyer, manufacturer, installer or some combination, and would go toward a fund managing a solar recycling program.

For commercial projects, the working group advocated for requiring companies to disclose how they will recycle panels after a solar farm is decommissioned.

For both residential and commercial battery storage systems, the working group recommends an “extended producer responsibility” model, which tasks original battery manufacturers or distributors with recycling.

The recommendations come as states across the country contemplate how to deal with aging solar panels and battery storage systems.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IEA), the U.S. is expected to generate up to 1 million tons of end-of-life solar panel waste in 2030. While the hundreds of millions of solar panels currently in use in the United States are on the younger end of the spectrum — about 70% of solar panels were installed in 2017 or after, according to the IEA — state policymakers want to get ahead of the curve when it comes to planning.

“The earliest solar panels that we deployed as a state are within 10 to 15 years of reaching the waste stream,” said Connecticut Green Bank Associate Director of Innovation Sara Harari. “It felt like now is the right time to start the conversation around how to tackle this.”

Developing a plan

Harari said the recommendations are intended to be high-level and “focused on the overall policy frameworks for recycling,” rather than specific rules or parameters.

Connecticut currently doesn’t have solar-panel recycling regulations, she said. Ultimately, it will be up to the state legislature or PURA to determine how any recycling programs work.

“I think that the reality of making decisions in the waste sector is that it takes a long time, and a lot of (regulations) have to be enacted through regulatory or legislative processes,” Harari said.

Harari said the working group spoke with officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other states — including Maine, New Jersey and Washington — to learn how they are navigating the issue. According to the EPA, California, Hawaii, New Jersey, North Carolina and Washington all have some sort of regulations or policies regarding solar waste, such as take-back programs or recycling initiatives.

In addition to Connecticut Green Bank and the state Department of Energy & Environmental Protection, the working group’s membership included representatives from Eversource, United Illuminating, Avangrid, Riomar Group, Battery Council International, Sunnova Energy and Trinity Solar, among others.

“I don’t think it’s too early to start thinking about this sort of thing, and I’m glad the Connecticut Green Bank pulled this together and sought stakeholder input — there are several of our members in that working group,” said Mike Trahan, executive director of the Connecticut Solar and Storage Association. “I don’t think that 20 years ago or so, when the first panels were going in, the people doing that kind of work gave much thought about disposal or recycling, … so I think we are well ahead of the game here in putting together a game plan and how to deal with this.”

Still, Trahan called the discussions “new territory” and said there are still a lot of negotiations and planning ahead before regulations are developed. Solar installation costs are expensive, Trahan said, and contractors need to know if they should expect new recycling fees.

“They need to be able to account for that in how they finance or manage their businesses — it can’t be a shock to them,” Trahan said.

Harari acknowledged that while the working group made recommendations as a unit, not everyone had uniform feelings about certain proposals.

“Extended producer responsibility can be challenging to implement because often manufacturers don’t wish to be held responsible for the materials at the end of their useful life, and we saw opinions on both sides of that,” Harari said. “Some manufacturers are very interested in reclaiming the batteries that have been installed and have deployed as a way to secure their supply chain for future manufacturing, if they’re able to reclaim those valuable minerals.”