Although solar panels bring the power of the sun to our homes, they have a certain lifetime and are in need of recycling. In this sense, Danish renewable energy giant Orsted has announced that it will partner with Texas-based SOLARCYCLE to recycle all end-of-life solar panels in the USA.100 percent of solar panels will be recycled
Orsted’s commitment to reuse or recycle 100 percent of end-of-life solar panels is a first in the solar industry. However, in 2021 Orsted also entered into a recycling contract for thin-film modules with First Solar. With SOLARCYCLE, it opened its recycling center in Texas in 2022.
While Orsted’s solar projects in the US are still in the early stages, it has already recycled 4,000 panels. The agreement with SOLARCYCLE means that Orsted will now have a recycling plan for crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar modules so that all Orsted’s projects now fall under recycling. In addition to recycling solar panels, Orsted also announced that it will invest $68 billion to install 50 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity (solar and wind) by 2030.
Why is the recycling of solar panels important?
In addition to glass and silicon materials, there are precious metals such as silver, copper and aluminum in the solar panels used today. Recycling all of these materials is critical to creating new solar panels. In addition, this will reduce waste, reducing the amount of raw material resources that need to be extracted and refined later on.Recycling solar panels could meet at least 25-30 percent of domestic solar generation needs in the United States by 2040, according to data from the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory in 2022. Therefore, increasing recycling in renewable energy is important in terms of both optimum use of resources and balancing of costs.
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