By: Samantha Davenport
In the United States alone, the solar market produces enough energy to power twenty-three million homes[i] and continually grows at an average rate of 33% per year.[ii] Solar power is the energy created by solar panels harnessing light and heat from the Sun and converting it to an electric current through use of semiconductor solar cells.[iii] While there are many different types of semiconductors used for solar panels, the most common is silicon and it makes up 95% of the panels sold today.[iv] Solar power itself is a renewable, clean, and flexible energy technology,[v] but the medium in which solar energy is harnessed has caused legitimate concern regarding their disposal.[vi]
A solar panel’s typical lifespan is 25-30 years.[vii] Solar panels are composed of aluminum, glass, copper, polymer, silicon, and plastic (as well as small amounts of specialty metals like silver, tin, and lead) – while the glass, metal, and electronic components of panels are easily recyclable, the polymer and specialty metals make the recycling process difficult.[viii] Recycling solar panels involves breaking down the panels and separating the materials, and either crushing, shredding, or milling the recyclable components.[ix] Whatever is left over, including the silicon and plastics, may be incinerated or sent to the landfill.[x] Burning silicone may not release toxic chemicals as burning plastic does,[xi] but when left in the landfill, silicone takes up to 100 years to decompose.[xii] When specialty metals are not separated from the panel, they leak toxic chemicals and pollutants like lead and cadmium can be washed out of the panel and into landfill soils by rainwater.[xiii]
There are no federal laws that mandate recycling and therefore recycling regulation is left up to state and local governments.[xiv] Since solar panel recycling is a relatively new market,[xv] there is no comprehensive scheme in place for solar waste. Solar panels create 300 times more toxic waste per unit of energy than nuclear power plants[xvi] – because of the environmental threat this waste poses, Congress must develop solar energy regulation for it to be a sustainable green energy alternative.
Solar panel usage has continually increased even throughout the pandemic, in large part because panels have become more efficient and less costly through the federal Solar Investment Tax Credit.[xvii] However, the estimated cost between recycling panels and sending them to the landfill is exponential – recycling costs range from fifteen to forty-five dollars while landfill costs range from one to five dollars.[xviii] Therefore, both federal and state waste policies will have a large impact on how the waste is processed[xix] and without adequate incentives to mitigate the higher costs like tax credits and government subsidies, more often than not panels will end up in landfills.
At present, the EPA classifies solar panels as “hazardous” and therefore they fall under the scope of the Resource Conversion and Recovery Act (RCRA) – however, the Act does not cover household solar panels or panels that do not meet the toxic substance threshold (even though they still contain toxic metals).[xx] The Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) (which funds solar research and development) has awarded over one million dollars to fund online solar-industry overstock components, recycling programs, and end-of-life management of solar waste;[xxi] and the EPA has established a “local government guide” to boost “solar deployment.”[xxii] While these are steps in the right direction, it is not sufficient to promote safe disposal of panels – Congress must adopt a program similar to the European Waste Electrical Equipment Directive (WEEE),which implements extended producer responsibility to ensure solar energy’s sustainability.
WEEE establishes collection, recycling, and recovery targets for electrical waste – manufacturers, rather than consumers, are held responsible for the safe disposal of waste and are required to collect a minimum of “65% of the average weight of electronics placed on the market in the previous two years.”[xxiii] Manufacturers are also responsible for financing the collection and disposal of electronic waste, meaning consumers can recycle their solar panels free of charge.[xxiv] Local authorities have established special initiatives to incorporate WEEE into local waste management plans[xxv] – in 2019, WEEE recovered ten kilograms (roughly twenty-two pounds) of electronic waste per inhabitant, and the collection rate for the entire European Union was 48.5%.[xxvi] This is a staggering feat considering that the United States recycled only 9.4% of electronic waste in the same year.[xxvii]
Solar energy has the potential to make United States’ energy consumption environmentally friendly and sustainable. Without clear federal direction, however, solar waste will end up in our landfills leaking toxic materials into our soils. Even besides WEEE, there are a plethora of domestic and international electronic waste recycling plans in place – Congress has the resources to draft a plan tailored to the U.S. to combat the recycling issue, and it is time to put those resources to work. It is now or never.
[i] U.S. Solar Market Insight, SEIA, https://www.seia.org/us-solar-market-insight (last updated Sept. 8, 2022) [https://perma.cc/7Y6X-D6Y7].
[ii] Solar Energy, SEIA, https://www.seia.org/initiatives/about-solar-energy (last visited July 23, 2022) [https://perma.cc/26YE-8ZLC].
[iii] Solar Photovoltaic Cell Basics, Off. of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-photovoltaic-cell-basics (last visited July 23, 2022) [https://perma.cc/A92H-YPLF].
[iv] Id.
[v] SEIA, supra note 2.
[vi] How are Solar Panels Made Anyway? The Climate Reality Project (Oct. 9, 2019), https://www.climaterealityproject.org/blog/how-are-solar-panels-made-anyway#:~:text=The%20large%20black%20solar%20panels,to%20make%20one%20solar%20panel [https://perma.cc/4L26-8KKA].
[vii] How Do Solar Panels Work? Re-Volv (Dec. 16, 2021), https://re-volv.org/blog-center/articles/?p=how-do-solar-panels-work&gclid=Cj0KCQjwof6WBhD4ARIsAOi65ajGlFyQOuC3AviudPPr-XPs0ZXDcFzxhNYBNW-J0_4dFi54rwtJFEgaAhVCEALw_wcB [https://perma.cc/T8YY-6FJ6].
[viii] Solar Panel Recycling, EPA, https://www.epa.gov/hw/solar-panel-recycling#:~:text=Other%20materials%20that%20are%20easily,small%20amounts%20of%20these%20materials (last visited July 26, 2022) [https://perma.cc/CJU3-UNSC].
[ix] Id.
[x] Id.
[xi] Why Use Silicone, Bellofram Silicones, https://www.belloframsilicones.com/knowledge-why-use-silicone (last visited Aug. 3, 2022) [https://perma.cc/WR77-J7SQ].
[xii] Is Silicone Biodegradable? Techie Scientist, https://techiescientist.com/is-silicone-biodegradable/ (last visited Aug. 3, 2022) [https://perma.cc/PC92-N76K].
[xiii] An Inconvenient Truth: Solar Panels Wear Out and They’re a Potent Source of Hazardous Waste, Hazardous Waste Experts (Apr. 3, 2020), https://www.hazardouswasteexperts.com/solar-panels-wear-out-hazardous-waste/ [https://perma.cc/8K89-J652].
[xiv] Recycling Laws are Different in Every State, Harmony, https://harmony1.com/recycling-laws/ (last visited July 26, 2022) [https://perma.cc/8RPX-227T].
[xv] Isabelle Gerretsen, The floating solar panels that track the Sun, BBC (Nov. 17, 2022), https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221116-the-floating-solar-panels-that-track-the-sun [https://perma.cc/E73G-9A4T].
[xvi] Jack Dini, Solar Panel Waste: A Disposal Problem, Watts Up with That? (Dec. 7, 2018), https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/12/23/solar-panel-waste-a-disposal-problem/ [https://perma.cc/33M9-RTE2].
[xvii] Atalay Atasu, Serasu Duran, & Luk N. Van Wassenhove, The Dark Side of Solar Power, Harv. Bus. Rev. (June 18, 2021), https://hbr.org/2021/06/the-dark-side-of-solar-power [https://perma.cc/4KKU-LUAJ].
[xviii] Jared Paben, Feds want industry help to lower PV recycling costs, Res.Recycling, https://resource-recycling.com/recycling/2022/04/05/feds-want-industry-help-to-lower-pv-recycling-costs/(last updated Apr. 5, 2022) [https://perma.cc/4BHP-EHNW].
[xix] Id.
[xx] Aarvi Singh, A Crisis in the Making: Solar Waste, Env’t L. Educ. Ctr. (May 4, 2022), https://elecenter.com/1371/a-crisis-in-the-making-solar-waste/ [https://perma.cc/MWA5-D8SN].
[xxi] What is End-of-Life Management for Photovoltaics? Off. of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (Mar. 2022), https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/end-life-management-solar-photovoltaics [https://perma.cc/ZRM5-E23Y].
[xxii] Local Government Guide for Solar Deployment, SETO, https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/local-government-guide-solar-deployment (last visited Oct. 11, 2022) [https://perma.cc/ZH4J-HVRU].
[xxiii] Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulation, TechTarget, https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatacenter/definition/Waste-Electrical-and-Electronic-Equipment-Regulation-WEEE (last updated Apr. 2012) [https://perma.cc/SR4L-J9NY].
[xxiv] Waste from electrical and electronic equipment, Citizens Info., https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/waste_and_recycling/waste_from_electric_and_electronic_equipment.html#lfea3c (last visited Oct. 14, 2022) [https://perma.cc/K7PK-2L8J].
[xxv] Id.
[xxvi] Waste Statistics, EuroStat (Feb. 2022), https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Waste_statistics_-_electrical_and_electronic_equipment&oldid=556612 [https://perma.cc/6Y52-RS49].
[xxvii] 20 Staggering E-Waste Facts in 2021, Earth911 (Oct. 11, 2021), https://earth911.com/eco-tech/20-e-waste-facts/ [https://perma.cc/R3MK-Y425].