MITECO has awarded €86.1 million under the first RENOCICLA call to 47 projects, including 15 initiatives focused on recycling solar panels
The selected projects also include 13 projects for lithium battery recovery and 8 for wind turbine blade recycling
Altogether, the 36 facilities target an annual recovery capacity of 75,147 tons of renewable energy equipment waste with an average recovery rate of 87.5%
The program will additionally fund industrial research and studies to improve eco-design and recycling technologies
Spain’s Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has announced the results of the maiden RENOCICLA call, supporting the circular economy for renewable energy equipment. Among the 47 selected projects for €86.1 million funding are 15 projects for solar panel recycling.
The remaining projects include 13 proposals for the recovery, reuse, and management of lithium batteries, 8 new facilities for recycling and reuse of wind turbine blades. These 36 projects have committed to a combined annual recovery capacity of 75,147 tons of waste from various renewable energy equipment.
These target an average waste recovery rate of 87.5% by weight. Most of the facilities will operate on renewable energy.
The funding will also support 10 industrial research projects to develop new clean energy equipment and improve eco-design in manufacturing. In addition, one study will explore recycling wind turbine blades and converting them into catamaran skids.
Together, the 47 projects will invest €216.8 million to improve how renewable energy equipment is designed, used, and recycled, stated MITECO. They will recover valuable materials, such as silver, lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and silicon, which will be reused in making new products.
Among the selected facilities – the projects that scored higher on innovation, recyclability, and ability to recover materials for reuse – is a project in Aretxabaleta, Gipuzkoa, to improve solar panel disassembly and recycling for the PV industry.
Details of the winning projects are available on the ministry’s website.
The ministry had budgeted €100 million to the RENOCICLA program for renewable energy equipment recycling and eco-design in June 2025 (see Spain Commits €400M To Renewable Energy Equipment, Recycling).
Spain is promoting the recycling of renewable energy equipment alongside renewable energy manufacturing. Earlier this year, in January 2026, MITECO launched a €355 million call to support manufacturing projects across the solar PV value chain, among other renewable energy technologies (see Spain Offers €355 Million For Renewables Manufacturing).