Georgia facility to recycle 10 million solar panels per year

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SolarCycle announced it will open a 5 GW solar module recycling facility in Cedartown, Georgia. It was announced in partnership with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.

An estimated 10 million solar panels will be recycled each year at the 255,000 square foot facility. This is large enough to process an estimated 25% to 30% of U.S. retired solar panels by 2030. The facility is planned to initially recycle 2 million panels per year and scale as end-of-life panel supply grows.

The facility is “move-in-ready” and is planned to be operational mid-2025 and the adjacent glass factory will be operational in 2026.

SolarCycle’s next-generation recycling process has the capacity to recover up to 99% of PV materials and is optimized for bifacial solar panels used in the utility-scale industry. Recovered materials from this recycling facility will be manufactured into new solar glass at the adjacent factory and sold directly back to American solar manufacturers to fill a critical gap in the country’s solar supply chain.

The facility is planned to be adjacent to Solarcycle’s solar glass factory, announced last February. The glass factory will be the first in the U.S. to produce specialized glass for crystalline-silicon solar panels and will have the capacity to manufacture 5 GW to 6 GW of solar glass every year. SolarCycle will employ more than 1250 full-time employees across both locations once the campus reaches full capacity.

“By scaling recycling and solar glass manufacturing through a vertically integrated process, we are filling a critical gap in America’s solar supply chain and closing the loop for domestic solar manufacturing,” said Suvi Sharma, chief executive officer and co-founder of SolarCycle.

The facility included strategic investment from Microsoft, Fifth Wall, HG Ventures, Prologis Ventures, Closed Loop Partners, and Urban Innovation Fund.

The company has long-term partnerships with more than 70 of the nation’s largest energy companies to recycle and recover value from retired solar panels.

SolarCycle currently operates facilities in Odessa, Texas and Mesa, Arizona.

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