PV waste in Brazil: the numbers

The solar market in Brazil

Every photovoltaic module installed today becomes waste at the end of its service life, or earlier, when it breaks. ABSOLAR (the Brazilian Solar Photovoltaic Energy Association) publishes the industry total; ANEEL (Brazil's electricity regulator) publishes the official database, split between distributed generation (rooftops and small plants) and centralized generation (large plants).

Projected waste

The most cited reference is the 2016 study by IRENA and IEA-PVPS. The ranges go from the regular-loss scenario (modules that reach the end of their service life) to the early-loss scenario (modules that break or fail earlier). The study uses 2016 growth assumptions; Brazil's installed base has grown since then, so the numbers are an order of magnitude. And waste does not wait for the end of service life: in SunR's operation, what arrives today comes from hail, windstorms, early repowering and modules piling up in the field, and the end-of-life wave is expected between 2045 and 2055.

What a module is made of

Typical composition, by weight, of a crystalline silicon solar panel of about 30 kg, measured in SunR's operation. More detail in the guide what a solar panel is made of (in Portuguese).

Regulation

Photovoltaic panels are on the product list (Annex I) of Decree 10.240/2020, which organizes reverse logistics (Brazil's take-back system) for household electrical and electronic equipment; the targets are in the schedule in Annex II. Ordinance MMA 1.560/2026 kept the 2025 targets for 2026 until a new regulation is issued. For solar plants, the generator's responsibility under the PNRS (Brazil's National Solid Waste Policy, Law 12.305/2010) applies. The status of the bills is tracked in bills on solar panels (in Portuguese). The full picture is in the guide to solar panel recycling regulation in Brazil.

SunR

Numbers contracted since 2020, when SunR, the first photovoltaic panel recycler in Latin America, took apart its first module by hand. Today recycling is 100% mechanical, and the composition published above comes from the same operation.

About the data

This page is reviewed once a year, in October, and whenever a new rule is published or a bill moves to a new stage. The date of each number appears next to its source.

The ANEEL numbers are SunR's sum over the agency's open data files: installed capacity of solar distributed generation projects (file of Oct 10, 2026) and inspected capacity of solar plants in operation in SIGA (file of Oct 1, 2026). The ABSOLAR total has a different date and method, so it does not exactly match the ANEEL sum.

The waste projections are from IRENA and IEA-PVPS (2016) and were not recalculated by SunR. The module composition and the SunR numbers come from the company's operation.

How to cite: "SunR. PV waste in Brazil: the numbers. sunr.com.br/en/blog/pv-waste-brazil-statistics, updated October 18, 2026." For third-party data, also cite the original source shown with each number. To estimate the liability of a specific plant, use the solar liability calculator (in Portuguese).