Solar Recycling Solutions
The client
Solar Recycling Solutions needed to establish whether they would be able to claim carbon finance on the voluntary carbon market by recycling solar panels at a proposed new state-of-the-art facility. The SOL Environment team was tasked with carrying out a feasibility study.
Solar photovoltaic panels are an incredible innovation. They allow households and businesses to generate clean, green energy entirely free of charge. Often, this results in a surplus that can be sent to the national grid, boosting the whole country’s sustainability.
But with an estimated operational lifetime of 25 to 30 years at most, a lot of existing solar panel systems are now reaching the end of the road. That’s without counting the small number of breakages, failures and upgrades that are a normal part of use.
At their site in Dartford, Solar Recycling Solutions (SRS) offers full recycling of solar panels. Currently, they are the only company in the UK to offer this important sustainability feature. In the recycling process, the panels are dismantled, and their materials repurposed across a wide range of usage – giving them a sustainable second life.
The challenge
In the UK, carbon finance mechanisms are available to fund projects that demonstrate an emissions reduction, as part of the government’s drive to lower carbon emissions and ultimately reach Net Zero. However, the standards for this kind of financing are high, and the application process can be challenging. Businesses have to demonstrate that they meet very specific criteria to be eligible for ‘carbon credits’.
While this type of project would contribute towards the government’s net zero goals, the aim was for it to be part of a non-government scheme on the ‘Voluntary Carbon Market’.
The process
The Carbon team at Sol Environment carried out an in-depth review of all available carbon credit methodologies, to establish which options would potentially be available to Solar Recycling Solutions. Once this was established, we then had to determine whether the solar panel recycling project met all requirements, including ‘additionality’. In other words, it had to present a net environmental benefit that could only be achieved with carbon finance. This process included a review of any similar projects, and on completion, we provided the client with a clear decision on the feasibility of applying.
The outcome
After a thorough review, we determined that the solar panel recycling project would not be eligible to receive carbon finance. While the project was viable and beneficial, it did not meet all of the additionality criteria, which are very exacting.
This may seem like a negative outcome, but our client was very happy to have gone through the feasibility process with our support. By getting a clear picture at an early stage, we saved them significant cost and effort in the long run. Attempting to go through the carbon finance application process formally, only to be rejected on grounds of insufficient additionality, would have been a waste of time and resources – and a cause of considerable stress. That’s why they were happy to recommend SOL Environment to one of their contacts in the sector.
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