The Niagara County Legislature has approved a resolution that will fund efforts to require solar project developers to comply with recycling regulations of panels. The resolution aims to help enforce Local Law Number 4 of 2021, which was signed into law in April 2021. The law goes into effect on Aug. 1 and requires that no manufacturer, distributor, retailer or installer of solar panels may sell or offer for sale a photovoltaic module in or into the county unless the manufacturer of the module is in full compliance. Each solar manufacturer or stewardship organization will need to prepare and submit a stewardship plan to the county by Aug. 1, or within 30 days of its first sale of modules to or into the county.
Dawn Timm, Niagara County environmental coordinator, has said this works as a preemptive measure against a future problem with pollution. “Niagara County’s position on this is that there’s a plethora of activity surrounding solar, but there’s no outlet for the waste,” she said. “We are dealing with legacy waste from a variety of technology and products over the last 100 years, and it was recognized very early on that we don’t want this to be the same issue in dealing with millions of solar panels in 30 years, and not knowing what to do with them.”
The resolution specified that $200,000 of the New York State Countywide Shared Services Initiative money Niagara County received will be going toward funding the enforcement of this law. The resolution also authorized the commitment of any future revenue that’s generated from the enforcement of this law to be put back toward its future execution.