ACEN Australia sets solar recycling benchmark

Nearly a million solar panels won’t end up as waste. ACEN Australia is giving them a second life, pledging full recycling for its 520-megawatt Stubbo Solar project in central-west New South Wales—a first in Australia.

“Decarbonizing Australia’s energy system is a crucial step, but if we only replace the fuel, we risk repeating the logic of the old extractive model,” ACEN Australia Managing Director David Pollington said Thursday.

“Circularity challenges us to design for longevity, resilience and renewal, and Stubbo shows what’s possible when those principles are built in from the start. We hope what we’ve achieved encourages others across the industry to take the same step," he added.

Stubbo Solar is the first large-scale project to be recognized by the Circular PV Alliance’s (CPVA) for its capacity to make circular management commercially viable.

The project earned an “Exceeds” rating for its full lifecycle approach, treating materials as resources rather than waste.

It began generating power this year and is set to reach full commercial operations by November, supported by a 20-year Long-Term Service Agreement from New South Wales’ first renewable energy and storage auction.

CPVA Co-founder and CEO Megan Jones noted that while recycling technology exists, market incentives are needed to make it scalable.

“By embedding circularity into a project of this size, ACEN Australia is helping build the demand signals and supply chains that make large-scale recovery viable,” she said.

ACEN Corp., the Ayala group’s listed energy platform, operates in the Philippines, Australia, Vietnam, India, Lao PDR, and Indonesia with around 7 gigawatts of renewable capacity, aiming for Net Zero emissions by 2050.