Australia’s rooftop solar revolution has slashed power bills and emissions, but behind the good news story is a growing waste problem in need of an urgent solution. The industry is sounding the alarm, warning Australia is about to be hit with a tsunami of solar panel waste as more households take up batteries thanks to the federal government’s new subsidies. Currently, about 4 million homes across the nation have installed solar, equating to more than 150 million panels nationwide when commercial and large-scale systems are included. But as households upgrade to newer systems, an estimated 4 million individual panels are decommissioned every year. That figure is expected to double to 8 million panels a year due to increased solar uptake alone — even before accounting for the forecast wave of system upgrades driven by battery installation. Currently, there is no mandatory recycling scheme for solar panels. As a result, only about 10 per cent of panels are recycled. The rest are stockpiled, sent overseas or end up in landfill.
The solar industry has been waiting since 2016 for a national product stewardship scheme — a mandatory system that would fund recycling through an up-front levy on imported or manufactured panels. It is not just an environmental problem — it is an economic one. Experts warn the world is running short on critical minerals. The International Energy Agency predicts that without action, there will be a 30 per cent global shortfall in copper by 2035, and it recommends countries regulate recycling to help bridge the gap.
While there are seven active solar panel recyclers in Australia, they face steep economic and logistical hurdles.
#ABCBusiness
Subscribe: http://ab.co/1svxLVE
Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-12/solar-waste-problem-looms-after-rooftop-panel-boom/105402628
ABC NEWS provides around the clock coverage of news events as they break in Australia and abroad. It’s news when you want it, from Australia’s most trusted news organisation.
For more from ABC NEWS, click here: https://ab.co/2kxYCZY
Watch more ABC NEWS content ad-free on ABC iview: https://ab.co/2OB7Mk1
Go deeper on our ABC NEWS In-depth channel: https://ab.co/2lNeBn2
Like ABC NEWS on Facebook: http://facebook.com/abcnews.au
Follow ABC NEWS on Instagram: http://instagram.com/abcnews_au
Follow ABC NEWS on X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/abcnews
Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated.
#ABCNEWS #ABCNEWSAustralia
Leave a Reply