Letter writer ANNE O’HARA, of Wanniassa, says some solar panels and wind generators are already being recycled and repurposed, but many Australians seem unaware of it. 

Vi Evans is right to be concerned about materials going unnecessarily to landfill (“What about waste from renewables?” CN March 3). But her concern about solar panels and wind turbines needs to be kept in context. 

According to the latest National Waste and Recovery Report, during 2022–23 Australia generated an estimated 26.8 million tonnes (Mt) of building and demolition materials, 14.6 Mt of organics, 10.3 Mt of ash, 6.5 Mt of hazardous wastes, 6 Mt of metals, 4.9 Mt of paper and cardboard and 3 Mt of plastics. Vi should note that the ash is the toxic residue of coal-fired electricity generation. 

In comparison, annual solar-panel waste in Australia is only around 60,000 tonnes (0.06 Mt) and projected to rise to around 100,000 tonnes (0.1 Mt) by 2030. Australia must get better at recycling in general. 

It is good to know that the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water is currently working to redesign the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme to include solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. 

This scheme will require solar manufacturers, importers, and all stakeholders in the solar-panel supply chain to take responsibility for the end-of-life management of panels, helping to reduce landfill waste and promote recycling.

Meanwhile, some solar panels and wind generators are already being recycled and repurposed, but many Australians seem unaware of it. 

Anne O’Hara, Wanniassa

Loyalty drives up power bills

John L Smith, (Letters, 4/3) appears to misunderstand the forces behind our high power prices. 

Firstly, the wholesale power price is set by the most expensive component. That is currently gas power. In 2022 experts found that gas set the wholesale price 50-90 per cent of the time. 

Add to expensive gas power, the unreliability of our old coal stations. Over 12 months NSW and Queensland had, on average, around one quarter of their coal-powered electricity generation unavailable. This unreliability isn’t cheap. 

Fortunately, the impact of gas and coal on our power prices might soon weaken. Over the 2025 December quarter, average wholesale power prices were down 44 per cent down on the previous year’s – thanks to high levels of renewables.

The second thing that is driving up householders’ bills is loyalty to their retailers. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission finds that households that have been on the same electricity plan for more than three years are paying on average $221 per year more than customers on new plans. Almost three quarters of households are paying more for power than they might if they switched plans.

Lesley Walker, via email

Nick answers his critics on numbers

There has been quite an interest and follow-up of my original letter. I am now replying to those in CN March 5. 

My answers to the letters are:

John L Smith you are correct. TheVictorian Big Battery was $170 million and this figure was used in the arithmetical calculations to come up with the $1.4 trillion for the conditions shown.

Fiona Collin, I agree with everything you say about renewables and about SA leading the way. But it seems you still have not read my paper I referred to in my original letter. 

Australia makes 5.3 million tonnes of steel a year. No matter how you make it, dirty as now, or green with renewables it takes about 2.5 MWh/tonne of steel – and it has to be 24/7 because stoppages are hugely expensive.

If you multiply 2.5MWh/t by 5.3 million tons you get 13.25 million MWh, meaning each hour 24/7 you have to provide this amount of power.

To do that with renewables you will need to cover all the free land in Victoria with solar panels, wind turbines and batteries. And to use your wording: “This is not modelling, this is real-time experience.”

Vi Evans, I agree with you. Advocates of renewables never mention their waste in making the renewables, nor waste at the end of their life, but you may be pleased to know that nowadays all of it can be recycled in India.

Nick Standish, Macquarie

Imagining the unhappy end game for Woke prestige

Although I scorn long-term economic/political predictions, I can’t resist imagining the unhappy end game for Woke prestige if either side establishes supremacy in this extraordinary period of Middle Eastern flux.

If the mullahs fall, Iran prospers, Hamas and Hezbollah dry up, and post-war reconstruction begins – Woke gallantry on behalf of the murderous Islamist dregs will be rendered passé and exposed for its folly.

If, on the other hand, the mullahs’ recent fatwa call (apparently, we’re all Salman Rushdie now) lights an existential firestorm in a death-thrown West, the Woke will bolt in fear of the zealots they abetted homing in on them.

Peter Robinson, Ainslie