Every year, as more wind and solar farms are built, America’s power supply gets cleaner. Producing electricity from renewable resources like solar means more energy independence and less air and water pollution, which is good for families and communities everywhere. But is solar energy really clean? And what happens when solar farms reach the end of their operational lives? Read on for answers to several commonly asked questions.
Yes. Solar farms are a great neighbor, because they generate a lot of clean energy from the sun without creating any air or water pollution. As such, solar projects contribute to a healthier environment for all.
It is possible to recycle silicon solar panels, and in fact, up to 95% of the materials can be recovered and reused.
In most cases, the answer is no. The majority of panels used in utility-scale solar farms in the U.S. are classified as "universal waste" by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This means that they do not contain any substances or materials that are considered hazardous under federal law, and so there is no risk of toxicity if one of these panels is damaged or broken.
No, there are many different models of solar panels that use different materials to produce electricity from the sun. However, there are two main types of solar panels: silicon photovoltaic (PV) panels, which are the most common in the U.S. today, and thin film PV panels. In terms of recycling, this article focuses on silicon panels, but thin film panels can be recycled too. First Solar is the only global top-ten solar panel manufacturer headquartered in the U.S., and they make thin film panels, which they recycle as well.
Until recently, the only way to dispose of silicon solar panels that were damaged, broken, or had reached the end of their useful lives was to send them to a landfill. As noted above, most panels are not considered hazardous waste, so they can be taken to a regular landfill; under federal law, the small number of panels that are considered hazardous waste must be disposed of as such.
It is possible to recycle silicon solar panels, and in fact, up to 95% of the materials can be recovered and reused. However, because the silicon solar panel recycling industry is just getting started, options are limited and quite expensive. One company, SOLARCYCLE, has emerged as a leader and offers “full recycling of solar panels,” but notes that the $18 it charges per panel is much more expensive than the $1-2 charged by landfills. Nevertheless, several companies have entered into agreements with SOLARCYCLE to recycle panels they need to dispose of.
When thinking about disposing of solar panels, it’s important to understand the difference between the main issue today – which is dealing with the relatively small number of panels that are damaged or broken during construction and operations – and the comparatively large number of panels that will need to be disposed of in the future, when entire solar farms reach the end of their operational lives and need to be repowered with new equipment, or taken out of service and decommissioned (more on that below).
By 2050, the global value of raw materials recoverable from solar panels could exceed $15 billion, so there’s a strong incentive to recycle them.
In many countries, including the U.S., work is already underway to prepare for the large numbers of solar panels that will reach the end of their useful lives over the next decade and beyond. Fortunately, solar panels can contain many valuable raw materials, including aluminum, glass, silver, silicon, and copper, among others. In fact, it’s been estimated that by 2050, the cumulative value of all the materials that could be recovered from solar panels could exceed $15 billion!
This means there are strong financial incentives to develop technologies to recycle solar panels and recover the raw materials they contain. It’s also important to keep things in perspective – the amount of waste that will come from solar panels is tiny compared to other sources like garbage, coal ash, and plastic waste.
In the U.S., the solar farms being built today are expected to have operational lifespans of 30-40 years, although early solar farms built between 2005-2015 might have slightly shorter operational lifespans of 25-30 years. This means that while most solar panels installed at utility-scale projects in the U.S. are still operating, we can expect to see some older solar projects and their panels reach the end of their lives by the end of this decade.
Because there hasn’t been sufficient demand for panel recycling services, cost-effective opportunities to do so are still limited. However, the solar industry is planning ahead and working proactively to be ready to address the issue at scale as more solar panels reach the end of their lives in the coming years. You can read more about the basics of solar panel recycling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website.
Solar has an important role to play in helping the world transition to cleaner sources of electricity. However, like any power plant, if a solar farm reaches the end of its operational life and is no longer needed or wanted, it must be responsibly decommissioned. Fortunately, solar farms are probably the easiest type of power plant to decommission. Removing all the equipment and materials is relatively straightforward, and after decommissioning the land can be returned to its original use, including farming or ranching.
Prior to building a solar project, solar companies typically sign a decommissioning agreement with the relevant local jurisdiction(s) that contains a plan to ensure the removal of all equipment at the end of the project’s life. These agreements require the project owner to adhere to all state and local rules around decommissioning, and they clarify that landowners and other taxpayers will not bear the costs of doing so. Some agreements include provisions for some form of financial security that ensures the project will have the resources needed to remove all equipment if a facility is decommissioned.
America's rural communities keep the country running by producing the food and energy we need to power our nation. In places where agriculture is a way of life, harvesting the wind is just like any other kind of farming – and it offers a predictable, drought- and weather-resistant source of income that can help stabilize a farm’s finances, particularly in lean years.
In terms of wildlife, wind projects are understood to have greater potential for risk than solar or energy storage projects, which are relatively low to the ground and don’t have moving parts. Fortunately, many of the issues seen with the first U.S. wind farms built some 40 years ago have been addressed and resolved.
Across the United States, many rural communities have deep roots in agriculture and a long history of using the land to generate value. Often, these places are also attractive to companies seeking locations to build solar farms. But is a solar farm really farming? And how does solar interact with other agricultural activities like growing crops and ranching?
