The decline in solar cost blows all of this away. If a person upgrades their solar because it has so improved in cost and quality, this article pretends people don't know how to add to their system, or sell their used panels to someone else. Solar panels in the US are currently lasting 33 years on average and have had an 85% cost decrease in a decade. Now a new US program intends to cut the cost in half in the next decade and increase that life expectancy to 50 years. The great wave of retirements will be in the coming decades, recycling resources are, and will be, coming along to deal with this as volume goes up. I'll give five examples from around the world. - USA 1) Game-changing solar company recycles old panels into new ones The first wave of solar panels is reaching the end of their useful lives. Now they can become new solar panels instead of trash. "...At a recycling plant in Ohio, next to the company’s manufacturing facility, First Solar uses custom technology to disassemble and recycle old panels, recovering 90% of the materials inside. It runs similar recycling systems in Germany and Malaysia. "...The E.U. requires solar producers to recycle products, and similar laws are in the works in some other parts of the world, including Japan and India. "...By recycling materials, the total environmental impact of each panel drops. The original solar panel, ...might last 30 or even 40 years. If 95% of the semiconductor material can be recovered and put back in a new panel, and the cycle continues to repeat, the original material could stay in use as long as 1,200 years.” https://www.fastcompany.com/90562056/this-game-changing-solar-company-recycles-old-panels-into-new-ones?  2) First Solar began investing in recycling and established the first voluntary global panel recycling program in 2005. They now have recycling facilities in the US, Malaysia and Germany and offer customers a service to recover and process panels globally. Their technology involves a continuous flow process and claims to result in the recovery and recycling of over 90% of the semiconductor material and approximately 90% of the glass used in its panels. This material is then re-used in new First Solar modules and for new glass or rubber products8.” https://www.newenergysolar.com.au/renewable-insights/renewable-energy/solar-panel-recycling?  3) Canada: Solar X revolutionizes the solar industry in Canada with the launch of its new solar panel reuse + recycle program https://pvbuzz.com/solar-x-launch-solar-panel-reuse-recycle-program/?  4) Italy: Mechanical technique for PV module recycling “An Italian consortium has developed a panel recycling process that can recover up to 99% of raw materials. The developers claim their technique takes only 40 seconds to fully recycle a standard panel, depending on size and recycling site conditions.” https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/04/01/a-mechanical-technique-for-pv-module-recycling/  5) Australia: One of Australia’s first solar PV recycling facilities is up and running in Melbourne’s north, The plant will recycle 100% of end-of-life solar PV modules and all associated materials recovered – inverters, cables, optimisers, mounting structures – using no chemicals. The final components are: - High grade aluminium - High grade silica dust - The silica cells which will be reused by some manufacturers. - Copper - PVC - Silver 100% of the materials separated from this process will be reused and given a second life. All inverters, rail components, cable can be processed in this facility.” https://reneweconomy.com.au/australias-first-solar-panel-recycling-plant-swings-into-action/ Etc.