Boral recycle solar panels to replace sand in concrete

Crushed glass from end-of-life and damaged solar panels has been trialled as a new recycled sand for concrete by Boral. 

Specifically created for Victoria’s North East Link project, the biggest-ever infrastructure investment in Melbourne, Australia’s north-east, it will be used to construct 6.5km of tunnels.

Solar glass sand is an environmentally sustainable replacement product to traditional sand, a natural diminishing resource essential to the building and construction industry.

The innovation was driven by Spark North East Link design & construct joint venture – a consortium comprising world-leading construction companies and one of Australia’s largest road and tunnel operators – which has engaged Boral’s expertise to produce and trial concrete with the solar glass sand. The University of Melbourne supported SPARK with development and testing.

Boral sourced the glass from ElecSome, an Australian solar panel upcycling plant that collects end-of-life or damaged solar panels. The glass was crushed and processed at ElecSome’s recycling facility, then blended with up to 50% natural sand.

A variety of concrete mixes using solar glass sand have been created by Boral. Test loads of concrete were transported from the Tullamarine plant to the company’s recently opened Bulleen concrete plant, which supplies concrete to the North East Link project, and a trial concrete slab was laid on site.

Boral have conducted an assessment of plastic properties including consistency and finishing, and have undertaken hardened property testing for compliance with relevant standards. According to Boral, the results so far have been excellent.

Dr Ali Nezhad, head of sustainability and innovation at Boral, said: "We’re excited to be leading the development of concrete mixes containing solar glass sand, an innovative new product that will be used in Victoria’s biggest project in history.

"The success of this sustainable concrete mix in a commercial project provides an effective pathway for recycling of end of life solar panels and contributes further to sustainability of the construction and building industry.

"At Boral, we are committed to finding ways to be more sustainable and push the boundaries of innovation. Our solar glass sand concrete trial demonstrates the ability and strength of reusing materials to create a circular economy.

"We are excited about the next generation of work being done around new and innovative building construction materials."