With the arrival of up to 13 solar farms and more than 12m individual panels in Lincolnshire, there may be a need to provide a specialist recycling facility as the panels fail.
A report due to go before members of the county council’s Highways and Transport Scrutiny Committee on Monday outlines the potential for provision.
“Lincolnshire is currently potential to host 13 solar farms, five of which have been approved and eight of which are currently going through the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects examination process,” members will be told.
“In total 12.5 million panels may be installed. At an estimated failure rate of 0.04 per cent per annum, this could result in up to 50,000 panels each year requiring management as waste,” the report adds.
There are also several smaller solar farms which have consent or are going through the local planning process and, the report says, there are some deployed without planning permission at the moment.
“Solar panels are primarily composed of crystalline silicone, but also contain critical materials and precious metals. They are classified as waste electronic equipment and are normally non-hazardous in nature.”
The report quotes an European Union study which discusses the management of the panels which highlights the need for dedicated recycling infrastructure.
“Given the concentration of solar farms in Lincolnshire, there may be a case for support in the development of specialised facilities able to achieve significant circularity in waste panel management. However, as this is an emerging market it is not currently possible to determine the critical mass required to develop such capacity to serve Linconlshire,” the report says.
A review of the handling of all types of waste in the county concludes policy should be sufficiently flexible to support specialist or niche facilities.
