Regulation, reuse and the waste hierarchy
A panel at 99% output is not waste. The rulebook disagrees.
Under MCS a solar module removed from a UK roof cannot go back onto one, whatever it measures on a flash test, because certification travels with the product chain and not with the performance. So it is recycled while it is still generating. These are the questions we get asked most, answered with sources and with every modelled figure labelled.
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Re-certification routes for a de-installed UK module
Verified~92%
Typical output of a module removed at year 12
EstimatedRe-use
Ranks above recycling in the statutory waste hierarchy
VerifiedWhere this leads
The regulation is the opportunity. Read how the whole material system follows from it.
Second-life modules are only the first of three waste streams. Christmas tree poles become the slats, and recycled plastic compounded with pine and hemp cellulose becomes the structure, a material we make rather than buy.