Committee approves bill to require recycling of utility-scale solar panels

The Natural Resources & Environment Committee advanced House Bill 320 on a voice vote after a presentation from Representative Trey Kelly, who said the bill would require owners and operators of solar power facilities to recycle photovoltaic panels and prohibit discarding them in landfills.

Why it matters: Kelly told the committee that Georgia now has about 7,300 megawatts of solar capacity and expects to add about 3,600 megawatts over the next five years, figures he used to illustrate the scale of future end-of-life panel disposal. "It takes 3,500 panels to generate 1 megawatt of solar," Kelly said, and he described the potential waste tonnage and the economic opportunity from panel recycling. "By recycling these solar panels, ... it gives our solar panel manufacturers ... an opportunity to…