Alberta introduces C$14 solar-panel recycling fee and landfill ban

Albertans who buy new solar panels next month will face a C$14 recycling fee for each panel, while the province bans panels from landfills beginning Oct. 1.

Environment Minister Grant Hunter said the policy will protect municipalities and taxpayers from future disposal costs. The government estimates that most of the solar panels now installed in Alberta will reach the end of their lives by 2045, potentially generating nearly 73,000 tonnes of material. A typical household has 20 panels.

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We’re creating the opportunity for new made-in-Alberta recycling programs and industries that recover valuable materials instead of burying them.

“We’re creating the opportunity for new made-in-Alberta recycling programs and industries that recover valuable materials instead of burying them,” Hunter told reporters in Brooks.

Industry associations and renewable-energy advocates say the charge is far too high and lacks a clear accounting. They note that recycling a solar panel would cost almost five times as much under the new fee as recycling a large television, which costs C$2.75 in Alberta. Heather MacKenzie, executive director of Solar Alberta, said C$14 amounts to roughly a 10 percent added cost for a typical panel.

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It appears that the government of Alberta is artificially increasing the cost of solar, and that will enable natural gas to compete more easily in our marketplace.

“It appears that the government of Alberta is artificially increasing the cost of solar, and that will enable natural gas to compete more easily in our marketplace,” MacKenzie said. She said stakeholders challenged the figure after hearing about it from the Alberta Recycling Management Authority, but officials did not show how they calculated the amount. Independent research commissioned by the Canadian Renewable Energy Association estimated that recycling a solar module would cost about C$5.

Hunter said shipping old panels to the United States for processing currently costs C$40 per panel. He added that recyclers would need time to develop economies of scale, and consumers could pay less if processing becomes cheaper. The announcement follows other changes by Premier Danielle Smith’s United Conservative government, including a 2023 temporary moratorium on renewable-energy projects and tighter rules on where they can be built.

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They are not willing to show how they came to that number, which means that nobody can really critique the assumptions that are embedded in it.