When a Bangladeshi factory closes or relocates, what happens to the solar plant

The constraint is usually the paperwork rather than the hardware. Why a net metering agreement stays with the connection, what the plant is honestly worth second hand, how to plan a relocation, and what to do with modules nobody will buy.

The question arrives in two forms and they need different answers. One is a factory closing that wants to recover value from a plant with fifteen or twenty years of life left in it. The other is a company moving premises and assuming the rooftop plant simply moves with them. Neither is impossible. Both are more constrained than owners expect, and the constraint is almost always the paperwork rather than the hardware.

The net metering agreement stays with the connection

A net metering agreement is made between the distribution utility and the consumer at one specific service connection. It is tied to that meter, that premises and that sanctioned load. It is not a portable asset. Taking the modules to a new factory does not take the agreement with them. At the new site you apply again from the beginning: new application, new technical assessment, new bidirectional meter, new agreement, and the sanctioned load at the new connection sets how much you are permitted to install there, which may be more or less than you had.

If the plant stays and the premises change hands, that is a different transaction and a simpler one. The utility has to be told, and the agreement is reissued in the new consumer's name alongside the electricity connection itself. Do that as part of the property transfer rather than afterwards. A new occupier who inherits a live array with an agreement in the name of a company that no longer exists has an expensive problem.

Before either route, read your own contract. If the plant was built under an ESCO, lease or power purchase arrangement, the equipment is not yours to move or to sell, and there will be a termination or relocation clause with a number attached. That clause governs everything else on this page.

What the plant is actually worth second hand

Less than owners expect, and the value is not where they think it is.

• Modules. The weakest part of the resale case. Second-hand module prices are low, buyers discount heavily for unknown history, and removal itself creates microcracks the buyer cannot see and will price for anyway. Performance warranties are usually tied to the original installation and rarely survive a move.
• Inverters. Good value if they are a current model with service support in the country. Close to worthless if the model has been discontinued.
• Transformer, LT panel, switchgear and cable. Reliably saleable, because these are standard electrical plant with an obvious second life.
• Mounting structure. Usually not worth moving. It was designed for one roof geometry, one purlin spacing and one wind exposure, and it will not suit the next roof. Sell it as aluminium and steel and design new.

The number that decides the whole exercise is dismantling cost. Taking a rooftop array down safely, with edge protection, crating modules properly and moving them down a factory stair, is slow and skilled work. On a small plant it can consume most of the resale proceeds, and a buyer who offers to remove it themselves will price that risk in.

If you are relocating, plan it as a new project

1. Confirm the new roof first. Structural capacity, orientation, purlin spacing and usable area decide how much of the old array is reusable before a single bolt is undone.
2. Test the modules before they come down, string by string, and record the results. That record is what protects you when output at the new site turns out lower than expected.
3. Budget for new mounting structure, new DC cable and new connectors as a matter of course. Reusing weathered cable and connectors to save money is how a new plant inherits an old plant's fire risk.
4. Handle modules as glass. Vertical in the crate, never stacked flat on a lorry bed, never lifted by the junction box, never walked on.
5. Start the net metering application at the new site early. It runs in parallel with the physical work and it is usually the longer of the two.
6. Keep the original commissioning file. Test reports, string measurements, warranty certificates, module serial lists and as-built drawings all carry value at the new site and at resale.

Disposing of modules nobody will buy

There is no established PV recycling stream in Bangladesh, so the default route for scrap modules is the informal metal trade, where the frame and junction box are stripped for aluminium and copper and the laminate is dumped. That is a poor outcome and it is not a lawful one, since the Department of Environment's rules on hazardous and electronic waste cover this material.

The practical options, in order of preference: ask the module manufacturer whether they operate a take-back scheme covering this region, since the larger makers increasingly do; sell working modules into the small second-hand market for low-value applications rather than scrapping them; store them properly, dry and vertical and off the ground, if a buyer is realistically likely; and if they must be scrapped, use a licensed handler and keep the documentation. Broken modules in particular are not general waste. Keep them out of the rain and out of a skip.

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