Canadian Solar partners with Solarcycle to keep solar panels out of landfills

Solarcycle will serve as Canadian Solar’s preferred recycling partner, with Canadian Solar’s customers now offered the option to secure recycling services at the time of purchase.

September 3, 2024 Anne Fischer

Image: Canadian Solar

Canadian Solar entered into a partnership agreement with Solarcycle to offer recycling services to U.S. customers.

Under the terms of the agreement, Solarcycle will serve as Canadian Solar’s preferred recycling partner, with Canadian Solar’s customers now offered the option to secure recycling services at the time of purchase.

“By including upfront recycling services as an add-on to the price of a solar module, Canadian Solar is helping to move the entire industry forward to ensure that we are truly sustainable, from cradle-to-cradle,” said Suvi Sharma, CEO and co-founder of Solarcycle, commented. “We will look back on their leadership in this moment as one of the key strategies the solar industry used to embed our core values into our core operations.”

With the rapid growth in solar energy in the U.S., there is growing concern about what will happen to solar panels at the end of their useful life. Without an increase in solar recycling, the U.S. will contribute 10 million metric tons of trash in landfills and other waste facilities by 2050, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). To put into context, the U.S. dumps almost 140 million tons of waste each year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Solarcycle reports that its proprietary technology enables the extraction of 95% of the value from recycled panels, including silver, silicon, copper, aluminum and glass. The company sells these higher-purity materials back to the domestic supply chain.

The company intends to set up recycling centers across the United States in 2024, with the intention of having a recycling center within 500 miles of 80% of the installed solar in the U.S., Jesse Simons, co-founder and CCO told pv magazine USA. It recently announced the opening of a recycling facility at its new headquarters in Mesa, Arizona, which is also equipped with a research lab that will employ scientists and engineers to work on the advancing the material refinement process to reach zero-waste and obtain the most value out of decommissioned panels.

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