Methods to gather, use and course of waste have to be created, particularly for glass – which makes up a lot of the photo voltaic panel by weight.
“As we speak, most photo voltaic panels that come to the top of life go to landfill,” Dawson instructed a latest convention.
Going through the massive problem, his enterprise PV Industries has arrange drop-off factors for public use in Sydney and Melbourne.
The corporate gives a one-stop store for recycling panels, inverters, cables and rooftop framework methods which might be mounted, managing households and bigger set-ups.
For instance, a sports activities middle put in a system in 2010 however realized that photo voltaic expertise has since grow to be extra highly effective and environment friendly.
A choice was made to improve from a 15-kilowatt to a 55kW system by putting in higher panels and recycling the previous array.
“It is quite simple,” Dawson stated.
“We acquire the photo voltaic panels, get well the supplies on the highest potential worth after which we promote the supplies for use in native manufacturing to make new merchandise.”
PV Industries additionally develops gear for deglassing and deframing.
The NSW authorities this yr gave the corporate $2.3 million to scale up recycling expertise and construct a photo voltaic panel and battery recycling facility, which can course of as much as 8000 tonnes of waste a yr.
The “round photo voltaic” grants are the beginning of a so-called round financial system for panels and batteries the place supplies could be recycled and reused as a substitute of being thrown away.
PV Industries additionally works to teach installers, councils and state governments to consider reuse, restore and recycling when putting in methods for properties and neighborhoods.
And it branched out so as to add batteries, earlier than constructing a mountain of waste.
AAP
