Alberta is set to launch Canada’s first provincial recycling program for solar panels on October 1, a policy that will simultaneously prohibit the equipment from being disposed of in landfills. Beginning on that date, a $14 environmental fee will be assessed on every newly supplied solar panel in the province to fund future collection, transport, and processing operations at the end of the equipment's lifecycle.
The system is designed to handle a projected surge in retired equipment across the province, which currently holds the second-highest installed solar capacity in the country. Projections indicate that over 95 percent of the solar modules operating in the region will hit their end-of-life stage by 2045, potentially releasing up to 72,700 tonnes of recyclable matter.
