The Growing Importance of Solar Energy Recycling

The waste from decommissioned solar panels and other solar-related equipment offers valuable material recovery opportunities, as well as other benefits. The International Renewable Energy Agency has found that by 2030, the cumulative value of recoverable raw materials from decommissioned panels alone will be about $450 million worldwide, which the agency says is equivalent to the cost of raw materials needed to make about 60 million new panels today.

Recycling this waste also means it doesn’t end up in landfill. Many solar components can be recycled, including glass, aluminum, copper, and plastic.

Brett Henderson, CEO and Co-Founder of SolarPanelRecycling.com (SPR), recently introduced POWER with insight into the recycled solar component market. Henderson addressed the challenges the solar industry faces in becoming more sustainable and cost-effective, as solar companies look for ways to leverage more domestic production and recycled materials to help solve supply chain issues.

POWER: How do you see the market for recycled materials in the solar energy sector?

Henderson: The solar recycled materials market is poised for significant growth, driven by the growing desire of manufacturers across industries to incorporate recycled raw materials into their manufacturing processes. This shift offers significant value by mitigating supply chain volatility and promoting vertical supply chain onshoring. It also aligns with their environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals, furthering their commitment to environmental sustainability and the circular economy.

However, current market constraints stem from manufacturers’ reluctance to adapt their processes to these recycled materials, often opting for virgin materials until a reliable and consistent supply becomes available. This hesitation makes it difficult to fully realize the potential of integrating recycled solar materials into mainstream manufacturing.

As the solar industry continues to prioritize recycling over landfill or partial recycling, the availability of clean goods will increase. This in turn will provide manufacturers with a steady supply, encouraging them to incorporate recycled materials into their processes. Expanding this practice will not only open new markets for recovered solar materials, but also lower the cost of recycling, creating a more sustainable and economically viable ecosystem for all parties involved.

But to ensure that solar recycling remains relevant, higher standards and strong regulations are needed around what constitutes recycling. Extracting the most valuable material and then throwing away the rest should never be considered recycling. That is simply more of an extractive economy, which is what we want to move away from.

Finally, there is still a significant need for education and outreach to fully realize the value proposition of choosing responsible recycling solutions over the cost-saving option of landfilling. Despite the progress made in the solar industry, the sad reality is that landfilling is still a more common choice than it should be in the utility, commercial and industrial, and residential sectors. This highlights a gap that needs to be filled with more robust outreach and incentives to shift the balance in favor of sustainable practices. By continuing to emphasize the long-term environmental and economic benefits of recycling, we can hope to see stronger adoption of these practices, ensuring that the solar sector truly leads by example in sustainable energy production.

ENERGY: Do you contract with specific companies and/or utilities to ensure a steady supply of recycled materials?

Henderson: Yes, we actively work with specific companies and utilities to ensure a steady supply of recycled materials. Our mission is to promote a circular economy through true recycling of solar equipment, which can only be achieved by cleanly extracting raw materials from solar modules and reintroducing materials into supply chains. This involves maintaining a large, steady stream of solar panels and equipment flowing to our recycling facilities located throughout the United States.

We achieve this through strategic contracts and partnerships that include recycling across the company for all projects, as well as on a project-by-project basis for developers, EPCs, O&Ms, asset owners and utilities. We are always looking for new partnerships to source solar equipment for our facilities.

We are proud to be named a recycler for EDP Renewables recycling initiatives and have large-scale recycling projects with Duke Energy and Texas Green Power, among many other regional and national O&Ms, utilities and EPCs. Equally important, we have contracts with suppliers from a myriad of industries that consume our cleanly separated goods from our recycling lines.

The notion that recycling is a 25-year thing is flat out false. New construction projects require immediate recycling solutions in the event of damage during shipping and installation. O&M have ongoing needs when panels fail or break during operation. Additionally, there is a clear need for large-scale recycling during major weather events or technology refreshes (repowering). By addressing these immediate and ongoing needs, we ensure a steady supply of clean goods, thereby supporting the broader adoption of sustainable practices in the solar industry.

POWER: Do you accept materials from utility-scale solar installations and from residential, commercial and industrial facilities? Is there a difference in materials in terms of which sector they come from?

Henderson: The short answer is yes, we can accept any type of solar equipment from any type of installation. There is no difference in terms of the materials to be recovered.

The longer answer is a little more complicated. That’s because for residential locations, there are logistical challenges and transportation costs with fewer panels in a given location. But as we become more local with distributed recycling centers across the country, it will become more cost-effective. Our goal is to make sure that not a single piece of solar equipment ends up in a landfill.

POWER: Will the products you receive be reused in new solar power plants? Are there other uses for recycled solar materials?

Henderson: During repowering (refreshing the technology), we receive panels in working condition that have not yet lost their lifespan. In such cases, the unit can be re-commissioned in a new solar installation that does not require more power per panel. In terms of recycling, which is the majority of our production, there are some components and materials that can be reused in a solar installation, but there are others, such as silicon, that cannot currently be reintroduced into the solar supply chain and instead the material must be reused for other purposes. Research is already underway to reuse silicon that has already been used in panels.

Currently, most recovered materials are recycled in the high-tech electronics sector.

POWER: Are there specific goals related to establishing a knowledge center focused on research and development within the Texas facility?

Henderson: We are always looking to improve our recycling techniques, whether it is through improved material extraction, more advanced machinery or being more environmentally sustainable. In addition, we are also focused on identifying new applications for recycled materials. Having a center that focuses on research and development will allow us to quickly implement findings across our growing network of recycling facilities. Although our Texas facility is a regional facility with a smaller footprint than our flagship facility in North Carolina, we believe that having our center of expertise in a state that has the highest renewable energy generation in the country is a natural fit. We fully expect to have multiple recycling facilities in Texas.

POWER: Can you talk about collaborations with academic institutions, industry partners and government agencies?

Henderson: We work with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Columbia University, the University of Virginia, and the nation’s largest utilities.

In addition, we work with industry organizations like SEIA (Solar Energy Industries Association) to help lead the industry in setting high standards and implementing regulations for recycling solar equipment. We have helped many state legislators develop laws and regulations that ensure solar equipment does not end up in landfills. Our CFO, Steven Turk, has spoken to various federal legislators on Capitol Hill.

ENERGY: How important is the concept of a circular economy for the solar energy sector?

Henderson: Circularity is key. At SolarPanelRecycling.com, we are focused on building a true circular economy. Recycling was supposed to be one of the three legs of the circular economy, but unfortunately in the U.S., other recycling sectors are greenwashing the services. Ultimately, the product ends up in an incomplete recycler who takes the low-hanging fruit, so to speak, such as the highly recyclable and valuable aluminum frame of the solar panel, and the rest is mixed, landfilled, or shipped to another facility, all under the guise of “recycling.” We have an opportunity in the solar recycling industry, as it is in its early stages, to prevent the sham recycling that hinders circularity. We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard and show what is possible by cleanly separating all the components and goods from solar equipment and reintroducing them into new production. The research and technology will allow all the components of recycled solar equipment to be returned to the solar manufacturing industry, so that manufacturers are not limited by the limited supply of the raw materials needed. To continue the success and rapid expansion of solar installations across the United States, the circularity provided by solar recyclers will play a complex role.

—Darrell Proctor is a senior deputy editor at POWER (@POWERmagazine).