SolarPanelRecycling.com has announced the 1st bifacial solar panel recycling line in the US
It uses the company’s proprietary technology that promises recovery rates of 99% or higher
It claims this can cleanly separate glass from the panel to return to the manufacturing supply chain
North Carolina, US based solar module recycler SolarPanelRecycling.com (SPR) has launched what it says is the country’s 1st dedicated bifacial solar panel recycling line. Its proprietary technology can cleanly separate glass from bifacial modules with recovery rates of 99% or higher, the company claims.
The company says it identified the inefficiencies that monofacial recycling lines presented for bifacial modules, especially in glass recovery rates. Seeing an opportunity here, it developed the new proprietary recycling line for bifacial modules.
Recycling modules usually refers to shredding the whole panel that leads to ‘commingling’ silicon, glass, metals and plastics into unusable waste. SPR says its technology ensures clean separation of all components, thus returning each material is returned to the manufacturing supply chain.
SPR’s CEO Brett C. Henderson said, “True solar recycling goes beyond shredding panels. It requires cleanly separated commodities that can re-enter the supply chain, creating real value and minimizing environmental impact. This new technology marks a major milestone for SPR and for the solar industry as a whole.”
The company claims its bifacial recycling line sets the highest recovery rates and environmental standards.
SPR says it is seeing an uptick in bifacial panels coming into the recycling stream as panels are damaged during transportation, installation or extreme weather.
In May 2024, the company opened a 300 MW recycling center in Breckenridge, Texas to fully recover and reuse all solar equipment material, including panels, inverters, cabling, and batteries. It was the 4th domestic processing and receiving plant for the company with the remaining in North Carolina and Georgia.
It continues to see future opportunities in this space as bifacial modules are estimated to account for more than 70% of the market by 2033, according to IEA PVPS.
The US is also home to another solar recycling company called SOLARCYCLE, which announced a 5 GW factory in Georgia late last year with the capacity to recycle and recover materials from 10 million panels/year (see North America Solar PV News Snippets: SOLARCYCLE To Build 5 GW Recycling Fab & More).
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