Renewables Recycling Summit
This is a summary of the Renewables Recycling Summit in Toowoomba held in August.
Most environmentally conscious people try to reduce your consumption so the amount of materials needed for renewable energy, electric vehicles, storage & transmission is concerning. Renewable energy is recyclable, and there are already businesses doing so in Queensland and around Australia - here are a few examples.
SOLAR
In Queensland, most panels which are taken off rooves are exported to developing countries for reuse. While this can be beneficial to those countries, a lack of regulation means we're exporting panels that likely end up in landfill elsewhere, and losing these materials, stifling Australian reuse and recycling.
The University of New South Wales found that the industry could be entirely circular, not dependent on new materials, by 2050. A couple of good examples of reuse and recycling are:
BlueTribe has just commissioned its first reused solar panel installation in Wagga Wagga
PV Industries have patents pending on new panel recycling technologies
Circular PV Alliance is an industry body leading conversations
Smart Energy Council PV Stewardship trial will imminently open six collection sites for small scale solar, with a target to collect 30,000 panels to trial the logistics of collection
BATTERIES
It is also possible to reuse electric vehicle batteries as energy storage, because EVs have higher specifications. Battery recycling technology depends upon the chemistry and is being advanced by:
QUT is developing new technologies to recycle materials
Envirostream recycles lithium batteries in Victoria
The Association for the Battery Recycling Industry is leading conversations
Vaulta is a Queensland company manufacturing batteries here to be more easily repairable
WIND
The Clean Energy Council has assessed wind materials flow in Australia for a good overview. Blair Fox are repurposing wind turbines in WA for large farms, particularly in fringe of grid areas.
There are a number of regulations, e.g. stopping panels being able to be dumped in landfill, technical standards, e.g. reuse of panels and policy incentives, e.g. mandatory product stewardship, that need to be in place to encourage growth in recycling.