This year United States has had its sights set on projects for the energy transition. Specifically, solar energy has represented 67% of all new electricity generation capacity added. In this way, the more capacity there is, the more waste there will be, and an American company is not only going to recycle it, but also wants to recover materials.
New recycling center. The SolarCycle company dedicated to recycling based on advanced technology has announced the installation of a recycling plant with a capacity of 5GW in Cedartown (Georgia).
The company has detailed that the recycling center will have the capacity to recycle and recover the materials of 10 million solar panels per year.
The project has been possible thanks to aid of 64 million dollars receipts for Qualified Advanced Energy Project Credits (48C), which are financed under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Specialized glass. The recycling plant will have a solar glass factory specialized, which will use recycled and recovered materials from solar panels for crystalline silicon photovoltaic systems.
The recycling process will consist of once the material is recovered, it will go to the glass factory. Once there, they will produce the solar glass for the new panels and it will be sold directly to American manufacturers. Additionally, the plant will have the capacity to manufacture between 5 and 6 GW of solar glass annually.
99% recovery. The set of both facilities focuses on recovering 99% of the photovoltaic materials and is optimized for bifacial crystalline silicon solar panels.
In addition, the SolarCycle company has stated in a press release that in their recycling techniques they will take into account the type of panel: monofacial or bifacial to carry out a different processing and reuse it in its entirety.
The third in the country of the company. The Cedartown recycling center is the third to be inaugurated in the United States, it already has one in Odessa (Texas) and another in Mesa (Arizona). The company is focusing on the south of the country and, in fact, Texas is growing towards renewables.
On the other hand, the project has ensured in press release which has had the support of Microsoft as a strategic investor as well as Fifth Wall, HG Ventures, Prologis Ventures, Closed Loop Partners and Urban Innovation Fund.
Silicon recovery? The new American recycling plant is focused on glass, but not on silicon, which is a material that is difficult to recover. Although it is a very necessary project since the useful life of the solar panels that have already been in circulation for years is only, for the moment, between 25 and 30 years.
In Spain, specifically, in Teruel there will be a recycling plant that recovers silicon from solar panels. For their part, in China they have managed to manufacture solar panels from completely recycled crystalline silicon. These advances constitute an advance towards a system that can help achieve the challenges posed by the scarcity of some materials.
Image | Unsplash
Xataka | The fever for solar panels has caused an ancient material to skyrocket in price: silver
Add Comment