Using PV panels is relatively new and with an expected life of 25 years or more you could be expected to think how to handle disposal is far into the future.
Maybe so, but there are places where PV use is much older and some are now close to end of life.
A recent article in Scientific American explores some issue for the effective recycling of materials in PV panels and we should also be planning for this in Australia. It is now not adequate to just dump the panels - they contain valuable metals and other resources including glass suitable for reuse.
Read the article here - https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-downside-of-solar-energy/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly-review&utm_content=link&utm_term=2019-12-04_featured-this-week
What are your thoughts?
Surely we can learn from existing failures to plan for disposal of products, and there are a monster number of PV panels going to require recycling over time and more thoughtful manufacturing might also be a useful advance, ensuring recycling is easier than now.
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