Notably the same province has a massive abandoned oil & gas well problem that they have failed to deal with for decades at this point.
The same government also effectively banned the use of renewables to power datacentre projects in Alberta, forcing them to use natural gas only.
$10 USD/panel sounds very reasonable to me, especially considering the recycling won’t occur for ~25 years. The fact it’s “more expensive” than other countries is not relevant since each country has their own structure and recycling fees aren’t an apples to apples comparison.
Adding $200USD to a $25k solar panel install so that recycling is taken care of doesn’t sound nearly as bad as what the article is declaring.
In case you want to appropriately calibrate your anger.
The net effect along with other regulatory moves the AB gov't has taken (they banned all renewables projects outright for some months a couple years ag) is to discourage investment in what was formerly a growing sector.
Note that usually you mount many solar panels, not just one, so this will stack relatively quickly.
Alberta has no provincial sales tax for the record and is the ONLY province without provincial sales tax. Solar panels are still more expensive in every other province in Canada based on sales tax rates alone.
<1.4% to fund the proper recycling of a solar panel seems more than reasonable.
Edit - also Alberta already has the lowest cost per installed watt of any province due to generally lower taxes and more vibrant construction ecosystem. Plus no PST. Complaining about a recycling fee is completely brain-dead and/or propaganda.
https://solarpowerdepot.ca/canadian-solar-450w-mono-bifacial...
https://solarshoppingmall.com/products/renesola-450w-mono-so...
Those numbers point more towards 5-10% cost per panel.
I think your “$1,000+ panel” is conflating the hardware with its share of the entire installation. I don't know how else to explain it.
Also the "$14" number was put out by AMRA (the government's body) without any explanation of how they arrived at that number.
TFA is biased, yes, but its bias is frankly justifiable in the current context.
https://renewablesassociation.ca/recycling-a-tv-costs-2-75-w...
https://globalnews.ca/news/12048123/alberta-solar-panel-recy...
Notably:
- Commissioned research estimates approximately C$5 per panel in present-value recycling costs, accounting for cost escalation over 20 years and potential reuse.
- The gov'ts "ARMA" has not published a breakdown explaining its C$14 figure.
- Utility projects already face reclamation security requirements covering recycling and disposal, raising a potential double-charging concern.
There's bad faith outrage drifters and climate denialists who promote that idea, but the most common solar panel designs do not contain lead or cadmium.
And even the ones that do, solar panels are 100% recyclable. They shouldn't be going to landfill anyway, every single component in them except the glue that holds it together can be remanufactured into more solar panels.
jleyank•50m ago
I wonder how loud they'd yowl if "no trade with Canada" gores their ox?
cmrdporcupine•48m ago
Also notably there are US states like Texas which are also extremely focused on fossil fuel production which aren't taking this aggressive anti-renewables stance. Alberta is actually further on this axis than any other regime in North America -- taking on a very explicit anti-renewables stance. Even effectively (through regulation) banning their use in large scale datacentre rollouts.
The local elites there are extremely threatened by any renewable talk; they run an active disinformation talk, and formerly the province had one of the fastest growing renewable sectors in the world. (Alberta gets a lot of solar hours and has high winds, too)
Aside, I was coming back from Edmonton a couple days ago and in the airport there's a wine/liquor store with a sandwich board out front proudly proclaiming that they "have US wine & liquor for sale!" -- completely thumbing nose at the rest of the country as a business opportunity.