Renewable energy recycling has just taken a big step forward in the Northern Rivers, with ReSolve Global officially opening its new holding and sorting facility in Tyagarah, near the old Bluesfest site.
Founded by Northern Rivers locals Ben Pietzsch and Anthony Salera, ReSolve has already collected more than 1,000 solar panels and is working with local industry to develop pathways for panels to be reused, where appropriate, or responsibly recycled so their valuable materials can be recovered.
Mr Pietzsch has a background as a solar installer and retailer. He told The Echo, ‘We created ReSolve because we could see the waste challenge growing in front of us. Solar has delivered enormous benefits for Australian homes and businesses, but we also need to take responsibility for the equipment coming off rooftops.
‘We believe the Northern Rivers is the right place to build this model. The region has a pioneering environmental focus, a growing renewable energy sector and an opportunity to lead Australia in how these materials are managed.’
It’s a timely initiative, with the NSW government recently announcing consultation on Australia’s first mandatory solar panel stewardship scheme, designed to keep solar panels out of landfill.
Practical, local response
Member for Ballina Tamara Smith was on hand for the ribbon-cutting at Tyagarah. ‘The transition to renewable energy can’t just be about installing more solar panels,’ she said.
‘We also need to think seriously about what happens to that infrastructure at the end of its useful life.
‘What Ben and Anthony are building here in the Northern Rivers is exactly the kind of practical, local response we need as more solar systems are replaced and upgraded. I’m particularly excited by the emphasis on reuse. If a panel still has useful life in it, we should be looking at how we keep that resource working rather than simply treating it as waste.
‘The Northern Rivers has long been a place where people are prepared to think differently about sustainability and resource use,’ she said.
‘It’s fantastic to see that innovation happening locally and creating the potential for new skills, jobs and circular economy opportunities in our region.’
Jobs
With ReSolve Global expanding fast, Benjamin Pietzsch said they are currently looking for new people to fill a range of roles, including warehouse, operations and business development management; yard and collection staff, accredited solar/battery installers and licenced truck drivers.
‘If you want to help build something that matters, we’d love to hear from you,’ he said.
The founders have already been joined by their sons in the enterprise, Brody Jamin Pietzsch and Kyan Salera, who said ReSolve was ‘definitely a passion project’ for his father Anthony, who has a background in construction and also volunteer work for organisations including Liberation Larder.
‘He loves recycling, always has, on every single job site that he’s been on. He’d always try to figure out smart ways to recycle. He loves it, so I love it too,’ said Kyan.
Brody Jamin Pietzsch told The Echo it had been a massive effort for the ReSolve team to prepare the 2,000 square metre site (which used to be a car wrecking yard) in a tight time frame. He said they were proud about what they’d achieved, and were looking forward to the future.
Big plans
Ben Pietzsch explained that ReSolve’s longer term vision is to expand its resource recovery model beyond solar panels to other renewable energy infrastructure, including batteries, inverters and wind turbines, another technology in urgent need of a recycling and reuse solution.
There are also plans to do more processing of the panels and other renewable energy components on site, with 33 acres available at Tyagarah for expansion as Resolve Global grows. Most of the panels are currently going across the border to ReSolve’s partner Pan Pacific Recycling, which is able to recycle 1,600 panels a day.
‘They’ve already got the multi-million dollar machines that they’ve invested in, so we want to be the front end to deliver them the product to recycle, while we obviously keep good panels for reuse as well.’
The new facility at Tyagarah is itself powered by 6KW of recovered solar panels, with other potential reuse clients including community groups, halls, schools and lower-income households.
ReSolve has created an app, called ReTrace, which enables donated panels to be tracked as they find new purpose.
Service Systems Manager Ryan Hastie, who developed ReTrace, says it acts as a complete audit system and ‘does the heavy lifting’, recording every step in the recycling and reuse process so users can have confidence that panels aren’t just ending up in landfill, as used to be the case.
As Ben Pietzsch says, it’s all about public education. ‘A lot of people don’t know what to do with them, but 99 per cent of solar panels are recyclable. They contain silver, and rare earth minerals. They have no moving parts, so in many cases, if they’re handled the right way, they can be put back up.’
ReSolve Global is currently seeking to develop partnerships with solar installers, councils, waste facilities, government agencies and recycling organisations. Find out more here.
You can also read The Echo‘s previous story about ReSolve Global here.
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