In today’s episode, Aaron talks with solar recycling advocate and industry veteran Kate Collardson.
Kate shares how asking the simple question, “What are we going to do with all this stuff at the end of its life?” and repeatedly hearing the answer “Huh. Someone should probably figure that out” led her to try to… figure it out.
She walks us through co-founding SolarRecycle.org with Amanda Bybee, and tells us the story of handing the project over to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
You can connect with Kate on LinkedIn here.
Listen to this episode here, or on:
* YouTube
* Spotify
Expect to Learn:
* Why the solar industry should pat itself on the back (we did something very unique).
* How EPCs, installers, and service teams can start building responsible reuse and recycling into their project scopes.
* Policy and funding models (like landfill bans or small per-watt fees) that could make the solar industry truly sustainable.
Quotes from the Episode:
“We built this industry in the name of sustainability. We cannot ignore what happens to the equipment at the end of its life.”– Kate Collardson
“We are the first industry in history that chose to figure out recycling before the waste piled up. I am really proud of that.”– Kate Collardson
Transcript
Aaron Nichols Hello everyone and welcome back to This Week in Solar. I’m your host Aaron Nichols, the Research and Policy Specialist here at Exact Solar in Newtown, Pennsylvania.And today’s guest is very special. Why don’t you introduce yourself?
Kate CollardsonThanks for having me. I’m really excited to be here. I’m Kate Collardson, as you said. And I have been in the solar industry for about 20 years.I started as an installer and have worked for manufacturers and distributors and financiers, and about seven or eight years ago I started getting interested in our end-of-life practices.So I kind of asked the question at trade shows, you know, around my network… What do you think we’re gonna do with all this stuff at the end of its life?And the answer was always, “Eh, someone’s gonna have to figure that out, huh?”And I got that answer enough times, and so nobody was really raising their hand to say, “I’m gonna figure it out.”Except for someone named Sam Vanderhoof, who has been in the industry for 40 years. He’s a pioneer from Northern California.And he started passing around a petition at an RE+ that might have been SPI back then, and it was (for anyone who’s listening, that’s a conference).It’s the biggest industry conference of the year. And it was a petition to get solar recycling going.And so I went up to him and shook his hand and said, I would love to help you out with whatever you’re doing.
Kate Collardson (continued)And so he was putting together a startup for recycling. I got him into an incubator program here in Colorado.We went through that, and through several twists and turns. That didn’t end up panning out for me.But in that time, I had gained this reputation in the industry as someone who knew something about recycling.People would give out my name, because whenever the topic came up, someone would say, “You know who knows something about that? Kate Collardson.”So they’d call me or email me, and I’d get back to them when I could, but I had a full-time job.I quickly realized I was becoming a bottleneck to getting information out.
So I sat down with my good friend Amanda Byby, who was in a similar situation (caring deeply about end-of-life practices) and willing to talk about it.She was also being given out as someone who “knew something.”So the two of us sat down and said, “You know what we could do? Put together a website that provides all the information we know, that anyone can access anytime.”Instead of saying, “Here’s Kate’s contact” or “Here’s Amanda’s contact,” people could say, “Go to solarrecycle.org.”
Aaron NicholsMmm. And the information that you’re looking for should be there. Well, how long has this been in the making? Because I know it just came out last week officially, right?
Kate CollardsonWell, last week officially, a different thing happened. We launched the website in 2021.So it’s been out there and people have been using it. What we quickly realized is that we were a volunteer organization, and volunteers couldn’t keep up with the changes happening.We’re a nascent industry (especially the recycling part) so there’s a lot that needed to change.We weren’t able to act quickly enough to provide the best information at all times.So we decided that SEIA, who was getting into recycling as a topic they wanted to support, could take it further.We worked with them and ended up passing the website off to SEIA.
Aaron NicholsOkay. And last week SEIA launched SolarRecycle.org under the SEIA umbrella. Got it, okay. So your baby grew up and you sent her to college.
Kate CollardsonYes, that’s a good way of putting it.
Aaron NicholsOkay, yeah. You mentioned something before we started recording about why you think the solar industry is special in one very particular regard. Would you like to elaborate?
Kate CollardsonYeah. We get a lot of bad press around how there’s “nothing to do” with solar at the end of its life.A) That’s not true. But B) we’re really young and just coming up to needing to recycle.We are the first industry in history to impose recycling on ourselves before it became a problem.Other industries wait until they run out of materials or the government steps in and says, “You have a waste problem, fix it.”We didn’t wait. We said, “We built this industry in the name of sustainability, we need sustainable solutions for our equipment at end of life.”We’re figuring it out before it becomes a crisis, and I’m really proud of that.
Aaron NicholsThis is one of my deepest life principles: never take life advice from people who aren’t trying.That might sound like a segue, but it reminds me of Peace Corps. I met so many critics who had never actually done humanitarian work.Same thing happens with solar — people criticize it without ever doing anything to help.An elderly relative once told me it takes years for solar panels to produce more energy than it took to make them. I asked, “How many years does it take a piece of coal?”We can’t take criticism from people who aren’t trying.Following that idea — what are the major obstacles we’re facing in recycling solar panels and end-of-life?
Kate CollardsonThere are a few. First, we built solar panels to last decades outdoors without service — now we want to take them apart easily.Those two ideas don’t mix well.So we’re still experimenting with different recycling methods to find the most efficient one.You can take off the aluminum frame — that’s easy to recycle. Then the junction box, which has electronics and metals.What’s left — the laminate — is the hardest: glass, backsheet, cells, and bus bars.Silver is the most valuable material, but it’s hard to access.Some recyclers cut off the backsheet with heated knives, but that only works if the glass is intact.Others grind and sort the materials or use chemical processes to separate them.Different companies are testing all these methods right now.
Another big problem is economics. In 20 years, module costs have dropped dramatically due to dematerialization — thinner frames, thinner glass, less silver.That’s great for cost but bad for recyclers, because there’s less valuable material to extract.So as the commodity became cheaper, the incentive for recycling dropped too.
Aaron NicholsWhat about electronic components? Is there anything in there that can be reused, or are they just destroyed at end of life?
Kate CollardsonReuse is something I absolutely advocate for. On SolarRecycle.org, we not only track recycling and policy — we also track where to donate used equipment for second-life use.A system that’s end-of-life for one person might still have plenty of life left for someone else.Electronics, like inverters, have robust recycling options — just like phones and computers.So yes, there are definitely ways to reuse or recycle electronic components responsibly.
Aaron NicholsSo what about for us as an EPC that’s sometimes removing old panels to put on new ones… where do we start?
Kate CollardsonGreat question. Recycling isn’t free, you pay to recycle.Unfortunately, landfilling panels is cheaper right now.Some distributors, like CED, will take used or end-of-life panels and consolidate them for recycling.So EPCs should calculate the recycling cost upfront, pass it to the customer as a line item, and deliver panels to a consolidation point.There are more and more of these cropping up nationwide.
Aaron NicholsI met someone from We Recycle Solar at the ASES Conference, they donate the glass to local artists who paint on it and sell the pieces.
Kate CollardsonOh, that’s great. There are all kinds of things you can do with used panels. Art is absolutely one of them.There are folks here in Wyoming doing something similar. You can make tables out of them, you can do all kinds of creative things.Of course, the world only needs so many solar panel tables. But I’m happy that we care and that we’re trying.It’s unfortunate that recyclers have to pay for panels to be recycled, but as costs come down and legislation evolves, this will improve.
If the company is motivated, they can make recycling part of their standard process. It just becomes part of the cost of doing business.Over time, as the industry matures and we have more material coming offline, the cost will come down.Policies like landfill bans or recycling fees, similar to what we pay for tires, paint, or batteries, could fund recycling sustainably.
Aaron NicholsYou’re so right. Well, what would you change first if you had a magic wand? What one big thing would you change about recycling in solar?
Kate CollardsonIf I could change anything, I’d like us to get behind the idea of a half-penny per watt to pay for today’s recycling needs.If we, as an industry, agreed on something small and fair like that, it could fund recycling sustainably.In Europe, there’s already a small fee that covers recycling from manufacture to consumer.We could do the same if the industry chose to, and it would help us live up to our sustainability promises.
Aaron NicholsWell, since we’ve been doing this interview series, I’ve ended every show with the same question.This started because I went to my grandma’s 80th birthday party and realized she was born in a world where the Rural Electrification Act had just happened.Renewables didn’t exist yet. The first PV cell was 1954, Jimmy Carter put panels on the White House in 1979, and now solar prices have absolutely cratered.So, just for fun, what do you think clean energy looks like 80 years from now?
Kate CollardsonI think we’ll use a lot less energy. Homes and businesses will be far more efficient.Although, data centers might challenge that.Hopefully we’ll be fully renewable, and technology will be so efficient we won’t need as much generation.
Aaron NicholsThat’s a great hope. Thanks. Kate, where can people find you if they want to connect?
Kate CollardsonLinkedIn is the best place. Or at industry events like the NABCEP conference.
Aaron NicholsAmazing. Well, thank you everyone for listening. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode.If you’re watching on YouTube, please subscribe. If you’re on Substack, drop your email and I’ll send you more like this.That’s been This Week in Solar.
Kate CollardsonThanks for having me.
