Luxembourg recycled and recycled exactly 0 solar panels

Luxembourg's Minister of Environment, Climate and Biodiversity, Serge Wilmes, shared information on the current situation of solar panel recycling. Despite an increase in the number of installations, recycling is still in its infancy. This is because most panels have not yet reached the end of their life cycle. For example, in 2023, 851.6 tonnes of solar panels were sold in Luxembourg, but not a single unit was recycled.

Waste that is still generated is collected by the producers or installers directly from the facilities. There are no centralised collection points yet. The process is regulated by the law of 9 June 2022 implementing the European Directive 2012/19/EC. According to these regulations, the goal of recycling 80 per cent of panel materials should be achieved by 2025.

However, the current waste accounting systems in Luxembourg do not currently allow solar panels to be identified as a separate category. This makes analysing current and future data difficult.

An important step will be to improve statistics and develop infrastructure for recycling when the mass retirement of panels begins. The Minister also emphasised that solar panel recycling remains an important element for the sustainable development of the country's energy infrastructure.

Although recycling of solar panels is not yet relevant due to their long lifetime, Luxembourg is laying the groundwork for addressing this issue in the future. With the growing number of installations and the expected increase in waste in the coming decades, the country will have to develop more efficient mechanisms to manage this process.