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ABC News
11-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Australia's solar waste piles up
Isabella Higgins: Australia's rooftop solar boom has been a runaway success, slashing household power bills and cutting emissions. But there lies a growing problem. The industry is warning of a looming tsunami of solar waste, with millions of panels being ripped out and no national recycling scheme in place. This story from national business reporter Rianna Whitson. Rhiana Wilson: Australia now has more than 4 million solar powered homes. Add in commercial sites and that's an estimated 150 million panels across the country. But they can have a limited lifespan. Jake Warner: So sometimes it can be workmanship, maybe an older system can fail. It's also increased technology. Rhiana Wilson: Solar panel installer Jake Warner says new federal battery subsidies are speeding up the transition and the waste. Speaker 4: I think post July 1 we'll see another uptick of those who have been looking into a complete solar and battery system from scratch. Rhiana Wilson: The Smart Energy Council says about 4 million panels are decommissioned every year, a figure set to double based on solar uptake alone, let alone batteries. Jake Warner says Australia is unprepared to handle the waste. Jake Warner: Right now the challenge is that we don't really have these recycling facilities ready at scale, like what I think we're going to need in the next 10 years or so. Rhiana Wilson: Currently, only about 10% of solar panels are recycled. The rest stockpiled, sent overseas, and to landfill. Darren Johannesson is from the Smart Energy Council. Darren Johannesen : In a solar module, there are metals that are in short supply, copper and silver. And in fact, the silver that's contained inside solar modules equates to, in its totality, Australia's biggest silver mine. So landfilling these modules is wasting critical resources. Rhiana Wilson: Darren Johannesson says it's costly for both the environment and the economy. Darren Johannesen : By 2035, there'll be a 30% shortfall in globally in copper. And so the IEA, the International Energy Agency, is recommending that all countries adopt a regulatory policy framework that encourages recycling, so that we can use urban mining to bridge that 30% gap. Rhiana Wilson: That'll require federal government action. Darren Johannesson says the industry has been waiting almost a decade for a mandatory stewardship scheme. That could involve a levy and manufacturers taking some responsibility for what happens to decommissioned panels. Darren Johannesson says without one, recycling solar panels doesn't stack up economically. Darren Johannesen : There's a sense of general optimism that the government will act. And so investors are still prepared to invest. But for how long they'll stay in the market is anyone's guess. Nine years is a long time to be waiting for a national scheme. The time to act is now. Isabella Higgins: Darren Johannesson from the Smart Energy Council, ending that report from business reporter Rianna Whitson. And in a statement, the federal government has acknowledged the importance of saving critical minerals from landfill, but hasn't said when a stewardship scheme for solar panels will be in place.
ABC News
11-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Solar waste problem looms following rooftop panel boom, with batteries to add to the pile
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 waste as more households take up batteries, thanks to the federal government's new subsidies. Currently around 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 as households upgrade to newer systems, an estimated 4 million individuals panels are decommissioned every year. That figure is set to double to 8 million a year, as Australians install batteries. 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. Instead, recyclers and investors are being left in limbo. "There's been investor fatigue," says Darren Johannesen, executive general manager of sustainability at the Smart Energy Council. While there are seven active solar panel recyclers in Australia they face steep economic and logistical hurdles. "Right now, it can cost up to $38 per panel just to get it from a house to a landfill or recycler," Mr Johannesen says. "Even then, the cost of extracting valuable metals like silver and copper outweighs the resale value of those materials. "Recyclers can't make it work on their own." Without government intervention, there is concern the sector could collapse under its own weight. In Western Sydney, recycler James Petesic has seen competitors come and go. "Seven years since we've been in operation, I think we've seen at least two or three businesses come and go." He's managed to hang on, largely thanks to federal government grants. He says the real challenge is not competition from other recyclers, but from exporters and scrap dealers who offer to take old panels for free or pay cash. "They are able to pay customers — being the installer themselves — to move that system from their warehouse, put it into a container and ship it overseas. "Unfortunately, we're not able to compete with that. We can't pay customers for their panels." Some of those panels may be reused, he says. But many won't be. New laws regulating the export of solar panels have stopped some of the leakage of panels out of Australia but it has not solved the broader problem. Without certainty around the raw materials needed — that is, the solar panel to recycle, Mr Petesic says "it's really hard to give an investor confidence to invest in our business". About 20 per cent of solar installer Jake Warner's current jobs include replacing old panels. "Sometimes it can be workmanship, maybe an older system can fail. "It's also increased technology, we now have battery systems, we've got integrated inverters and more efficient solar panels." On a job in St Clair, New South Wales, his crew is ripping out a decade-old solar array to make way for a more efficient set-up, complete with battery storage and smarter inverters. Mr Warner says it is common to be approached by scrap metal dealers and other operators offering cash for removed panels — some of whom ship them offshore with little oversight. "We've had people pull up mid-job asking to take the panels," he says. "They end up overseas sometimes, maybe on a hobby farm or in a developing country, which isn't the worst outcome. Currently, Mr Warner's business takes retired panels back to base and passes them on to approved recyclers or second-life users. But the costs — anywhere from $250 to $650 per household depending on panel numbers — are worn by customers. He says while some reputable solar wholesalers offer recycling drop-off points, the infrastructure isn't ready to cope with what's coming. "We can actually recycle up to 85 per cent of the raw materials inside solar panels, but right now the challenge is that we don't really have these recycling facilities ready at scale like what we're going to need in the next 10 years or so," Mr Warner says. It's not just an environmental problem — it's an economic one. Experts warn the world is running short on critical minerals. "The opportunity in front of us is quite exciting in a solar module — there are metals that are in short supply, copper and silver," the Smart Energy Council's Mr Johannesen says. The International Energy Agency has forecast a potential 30 per cent supply shortfall in copper globally, without action. "The IEA is recommending that all countries adopt a regulatory policy framework that encourages recycling … so that we can use urban mining to bridge that 30 per cent gap," Mr Johannesen notes. Everyone in the sector agrees the solution is simple — and long overdue. "A national product stewardship scheme will cut costs to consumers, improve efficiency in the industry and birth an important materials recovery industry, which is good for jobs and growth," Mr Johannesen argues. There's been plenty of talk about implementing a mandatory national recycling scheme for solar panels from both sides of politics. But after nearly a decade of inaction, the industry says time is running out. "Nine years is a long time … and with the growth in the module volumes, the time to act is now." Mr Petesic says if we don't act now, we'll be throwing away the very resources we need to power Australia's energy future. "We need some kind of government push to encourage and facilitate the industry, to be able to participate in the recycling of their solar panels, rather than leave it up to their good conscience."
Sydney Morning Herald
10-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Better bang for buck': NSW to cut battery subsidies as federal scheme kicks in
The NSW government will end its incentive to install a home solar battery from July in favour of an enhanced Commonwealth scheme, and use the savings to encourage households to allow their stored energy to be remotely accessed by the grid. Since last November, NSW consumers have been able to access a rebate of up to $2600 (depending on the size of the battery) to attach storage to their rooftop solar systems. The scheme resulted in 11,400 battery installations across the state in six months. The program will conclude at the end of this month, while the Australian government's $2.3 billion Cheaper Home Batteries Program is set to start on July 1. The federal rebate, announced before the election, will reduce the cost of a battery by about 30 per cent, making it about double the size of the state scheme. The NSW government will redirect the money to its Peak Demand Reduction Scheme, a program designed to reduce electricity demand during peak periods. In particular, the government is doubling the payments to encourage solar households to sign up to a virtual power plant (VPP) – a group of solar-powered batteries linked by software, which are owned by households and small businesses that have consented for excess stored power to be sold to the grid. Smart Energy Council acting chief executive Wayne Smith said VPPs were important because it increased the stability of the grid and this lowered power bills for everyone, not just those households with solar panels and batteries. 'There's a private benefit and a public good,' Smith said. 'It's actually important to find ways to try to integrate the individual home batteries into a much bigger collective battery system.' The Smart Energy Council says a 6 kWh battery at $6000-$8000 would meet the needs of nine out of 10 homes. The federal subsidy would be about $2232 and the NSW incentive to connect to a VPP would be about $444. On an 11.5kWh battery, the federal subsidy would be about $4278 and the NSW support for a VPP connection would be $850.
The Age
10-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
‘Better bang for buck': NSW to cut battery subsidies as federal scheme kicks in
The NSW government will end its incentive to install a home solar battery from July in favour of an enhanced Commonwealth scheme, and use the savings to encourage households to allow their stored energy to be remotely accessed by the grid. Since last November, NSW consumers have been able to access a rebate of up to $2600 (depending on the size of the battery) to attach storage to their rooftop solar systems. The scheme resulted in 11,400 battery installations across the state in six months. The program will conclude at the end of this month, while the Australian government's $2.3 billion Cheaper Home Batteries Program is set to start on July 1. The federal rebate, announced before the election, will reduce the cost of a battery by about 30 per cent, making it about double the size of the state scheme. The NSW government will redirect the money to its Peak Demand Reduction Scheme, a program designed to reduce electricity demand during peak periods. In particular, the government is doubling the payments to encourage solar households to sign up to a virtual power plant (VPP) – a group of solar-powered batteries linked by software, which are owned by households and small businesses that have consented for excess stored power to be sold to the grid. Smart Energy Council acting chief executive Wayne Smith said VPPs were important because it increased the stability of the grid and this lowered power bills for everyone, not just those households with solar panels and batteries. 'There's a private benefit and a public good,' Smith said. 'It's actually important to find ways to try to integrate the individual home batteries into a much bigger collective battery system.' The Smart Energy Council says a 6 kWh battery at $6000-$8000 would meet the needs of nine out of 10 homes. The federal subsidy would be about $2232 and the NSW incentive to connect to a VPP would be about $444. On an 11.5kWh battery, the federal subsidy would be about $4278 and the NSW support for a VPP connection would be $850.
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Everything you need to know about Australia's new home battery subsidy
It's not an overstatement to say Australians love solar power. Without batteries, though, households have struggled to take full advantage of their rooftop systems. Either they don't capture all the energy produced during the day or they lose their power when the grid goes down. Now the Australian government is looking to fix that with its cheaper home batteries program, which will come into effect from 1 July. Here's everything you need to know. The $2.3bn plan will subsidise the installation of small batteries for households, businesses and community facilities. It will be available to households with existing systems and those looking to get solar, and will not be means tested. The scheme is modelled on the subsidy used to encourage the introduction of rooftop solar and will similarly be phased out over the next decade. Households aren't expected to feel this change because the price of a home battery is expected to drop sharply, as happened with solar. The Smart Energy Council's chief executive, John Grimes, says those looking to install a home battery will get a discount of at least 30% on the retail and installation cost – though this is a 'rule of thumb'. 'There's actually a dollar figure attached to this, so it could be more,' Grimes says. 'The way the rebate is structured is that it's a one-time deal, whether you buy a small battery or big battery, but the rebate is larger for a bigger battery.' The discount will apply to batteries up to 50kWh; someone buying a 100kWh battery will still get the subsidy on the first half of their installed capacity. Tristan Edis from Green Energy Markets says there are two main problems the government is working to solve. The first is that Australians generate heaps of power during the day but there is no way to store for use at other times. The other is that even though the technology is developing fast, the cost of batteries has not come down as manufacturers have not prioritised the residential market. This policy seeks to address both and, long-term, it will enable a phase-out of oil, gas and coal in the power grid. 'First and foremost, it will reduce household power bills, not just for the person installing the battery but other consumers,' Edis says. 'In the longer term it's also reducing the revenue that a coal or gas generator is able to capture over a full 24-hour period. That will bring forward the date at which they are likely to close.' Emissions reductions aside, this will save you money. Grimes describes a battery as acting like a rainwater tank: if you have a solar system, you can bank power generated during the day when it is free and use it at night when it would be more expensive. According to Labor's modelling, this will knock $1,100 extra off household power bills each year, or $2,300 a year for those with newer systems – but this is a guide and may vary based on your circumstances. Now, effectively. The subsidy comes into effect from 1 Julybut Grimes says many installers are able to set up a system tomorrow but only turn it on after the start date to ensure you get the discount. The Smart Energy Council surveyed 9,500 energy users and found a 5kWh to 6kWh battery will cover nine out of 10 households. The price for a battery that size ranges from $5,000 to $9,000 – though there could be other costs if an older solar system needs a retrofit to accommodate a battery. Getting an entirely new solar array and battery setup is much pricier, with systems starting well above $15,000. Some companies will charge $26,000 before subsidies for large 'future-proofed' systems. Remember, your power bills will be near zero for the lifetime of the system and you will not be paying for fuel if paired with an electric vehicle. State subsidies are also available to further reduce the price on top of the federal rebate. For some people, a smaller battery will suit their needs but a bigger one may be a good idea to take full advantage of the subsidy. Every home is different and how much capacity you may need comes down to questions such as: are you on the grid? Is your region prone to blackouts or other natural disasters? What stage of life are you in? Do you work from home? Do you work nights or from nine to five? Do you drive an EV? Does that EV have vehicle-to-grid capacity? If it does, will it be parked most of the day at work when your solar array is producing the bulk of its free power? And, ultimately: what can you afford right now? There are lots of numbers involved when it comes to the 77 different battery systems on the Australian market. It is also possible a rush in demand will prompt a number of fly-by-night operators to appear, so it is strongly advised to do your research on the company and the system it is offering, and to ask around for the best deal.
