Solar panels on the roof can become the bricks to build a house

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Wear and tear means they all need replacement at some point, but they are full of valuable materials that can be recycled and ...

Wear and tear means they all need replacement at some point, but they are full of valuable materials that can be recycled and repurposed.

Where do old solar panels go when they give up the ghost? A recent visit to a solar panel graveyard provided a revealing look into how a surge in the recycling of this power-generating infrastructure is ­giving rise to new uses for the waste material – giving a small and unexpected boost to South Africa’s moribund manufacturing sector.

To wit, the “cemetery” I visited was a ­recycling facility in Germiston, Gauteng, operated by specialist electronic and hazardous waste recycler Reclite SA.

It’s on track to recover about 10,000 tonnes of solar panels this year, a figure that had only been forecast from 2033 when South Africa’s first 2.66GW of solar capacity under the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme was expected to reach the end of its operating life.

But older panels are coming to the end of their life faster than anticipated, in part because South Africa has some of the most intense irradiance levels on Earth. Storm damage and other factors can also play a role on this front.

New estimates presented at the recent WasteCon 2026 conference see more than 500,000 tonnes of solar panels destined for the scrap heap in South Africa between 2043 and 2048 – a new growth area for the recycling sector with applications for the country’s struggling manufacturing sector.

Globally, the scale is massive as the green energy transition rapidly gains traction and installations surge worldwide.

“By 2030, up to eight million tonnes of solar PV waste could accumulate globally, rising to 78 million tonnes by 2050 under early-loss scenarios,” Professor Suzan Oelofse, principal researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, said in the presentation. “This creates both a waste management burden and a resource opportunity.”

And there are resource opportunities galore. Solar panels are brimming with stuff that…

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