A report on solar panel recycling has recommended a raft of measures including the establishment of large waste facilities in five big Australian cities by 2027.

The Scoping study: Solar Panel End-of-Life Management in Australia report, from the Australian Centre of Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP) which is led by UNSW Sydney, has highlighted the projected cumulative volume of decommissioned panels to reach one million tonnes by 2035.

“The total material value from end-of-life solar panels is projected to surpass one billion dollars by 2035. As a result, establishing domestic solar waste management facilities in Australia presents an opportunity for resource recovery,” ACAP executive director professor Renate Egan says.

“This report was developed to provide a detailed analysis of the waste volumes and distributions needed to prepare for future waste from rooftop and large-scale solar.”

The recycling sector faces significant challenges, the first: finding markets for recycled solar panel materials, especially glass which makes up 70% of the panel weight.

The authors of the report have called for sites in the five major cities to deal with 5,000 to 10,000 tonnes of waste panels per year, with that volume needing to double at each facility in the next six years.

Those metropolitan facilities are predicted to be able to manage over 70% of Australia’s solar panel waste, with additional smaller sites in Dubbo/Wellington, Townsville, Newcastle, Murrumbidgee, Central Highlands and Busselton providing a comprehensive nationwide service.

The major expenses in the recycling process are the capital expenditures required for facility setup and the ongoing labour costs.