SolarRecycle.org has merged with The Atmosphere Conservancy, which is the non-profit branch of Solaris Energy. The merger brings official non-profit status to SolarRecycle, a website that was launched in 2021 as a clearinghouse to share resources about reuse, resale, and recycling of end-of-life solar equipment.
“Joining forces with The Atmosphere Conservancy allows us access to greater resources and a platform for future growth. The more we ensure that stakeholders have ready access to information about sustainable end-of-life solutions for our materials, the more our industry will align with its environmental values and climate efforts,” stated Kate Collardson, co-founder of SolarRecycle.org.
Collardson told pv magazine that SolarRecycle.org was created from a realization that there was a lack of information about what to do with solar products at the end of their lives. The team of volunteers put together a website that lists places where folks can donate their end of life equipment that still has useful life left in it. There are also options for reselling that equipment. And then if the equipment doesn’t have any useful life left, there is a list of recyclers.
Another mission of SolarRecycle is to track state policies, and there’s a tab with an interactive map that lists all of the policy that they’ve identified around the different around different states.
“The exciting thing about this merger with the Atmosphere Conservancy is that they have the non-profit status that’s needed to go after grants and those kinds of funds,” Collardson said.
The next step is to raise the funds necessary for making more resources available such as on-site and balance-of-systems components, pallets, and other shipping-related packaging. They also plan to add a decommissioning calculator, along with a lot of resources on decommissioning. As Collardson said, it’s an “entirely misunderstood topic.”
The team behind SolarRecycle.org will play the operational and visionary role required for programmatic implementation, and the partnership will continue to use SolarRecycle.org as the primary source of information for these initiatives.
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