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Bill would direct DEQ to study end-of-life waste from solar and wind facilities
Summary
Senate Bill 218 would require the Department of Environmental Quality to study waste and decommissioning issues for solar and wind facilities and report findings to interim committees by Sept. 15, 2026; industry witnesses said Oregon already requires bonding for decommissioning and that panel recycling demand has not yet materialized.
Senate Bill 218, introduced Feb. 26 to the Senate Energy and Environment Committee, would direct the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to study the impacts of waste from solar and wind energy facilities and to report the results to legislative interim committees by Sept. 15, 2026.
Sen. Brock Smith, sponsor of the bill, described the measure as a study-only bill to examine end-of-life handling for turbines and solar panels and to catalog existing recycling and bonding practices.
“ There is some information and meeting materials that you can read,” Sen. Brock Smith told the committee; “this is a true study bill.”
Industry and conservation input
Angela Crowley Cook of the Oregon Solar and Storage Industries Association (OSEA) told the panel that, for utility-scale solar in Oregon, bonding for decommissioning is already a requirement and follows best practice. She added that the state has not yet seen significant panel recycling demand because many projects are still within expected lifespans: “panels have a 20 year warranty, a 25 to 30 year lifespan. So we haven't really gotten to the place where there's panels to be recycled yet.”
Cox and others said Washington state has passed solar-recycling laws but delayed implementation while panels age into end-of-life.
What the bill would do
The DEQ study would assess current decommissioning practices, recycling capacity and likely future volumes of solar and wind waste, and recommend policy or regulatory changes to manage those flows. The bill sets a firm reporting deadline of Sept. 15, 2026.
No committee action or vote occurred during the hearing. Witnesses recommended the study to gather evidence and to review models used by other states before considering regulatory or funding changes.
Ending
Committee members asked staff to collect existing studies and federal/state materials to inform the DEQ work. The bill remains in committee as written; proponents and stakeholders indicated they will continue to provide information.
