Startup Planning Biggest US Solar Recycling Plant in Georgia

Solarcycle Inc. is planning a solar-panel recycling facility in Georgia that it says will be the biggest in the US, and will be needed to address a growing issue as demand for clean energy climbs. 

The startup’s complex will go into service next year and will be able to process about 2 million panels annually by 2026, according to Chief Executive Officer Suvi Sharma. Eventually, the company expects the site to recycle 10 million panels a year — the equivalent of 5 gigawatts of generation capacity — and will help supply a neighboring plant making glass for new panels. 

About 1 terawatt of new solar panels will be installed in the US through 2035, and every one of them will eventually need to be disposed of. Panels typically have a lifespan of about 25 to 30 years, and most currently end up in landfills. Sharma said the Mesa, Arizona-based company is working to limit the amount of waste by extracting metals that can be sold, as well as glass that can be used in new panels. 

“There’s a lot of demand for the glass,” Sharma said in an interview. While most panels in the world are currently produced in Asia, the US supply chain is taking off in response to tax incentives, and domestic panel factories are going to need a domestic supply of the glass, which is heavy and fragile. “It doesn’t make sense to ship it from Asia.” 

Solarcycle will invest about $400 million in the recycling facility and an adjacent, already-announced glass in Cedartown, Georgia. 

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