Silicon Ranch is partnering with recycling platform SolarCycle to process end-of-life solar panels from Silicon Ranch projects through SolarCycle’s advanced recycling platform. SolarCycle claims that its approach to solar module recycling recovers approximately 95% of the solar panel’s value. Silicon Ranch is SolarCycle’s first utility-scale partner.
This partnership will help fuel the growing U.S. solar manufacturing industry with a domestic supply of recycled materials essential to the production of new solar panels, including glass, silicon, and valuable metals such as silver, copper, and aluminum. Recent research by the NREL found that by 2040, for certain materials, recycling can meet 25-30% of domestic solar manufacturing needs in the United States.
“As the long-term owner of every project in our portfolio, we at Silicon Ranch are deeply committed to our relationships and responsibilities in the communities we serve. These responsibilities include end-of-life equipment management,” said Reagan Farr, Silicon Ranch President and CEO. “Embracing this opportunity to pioneer recycling and re-use processes at scale with SolarCycle is a significant step in meeting these responsibilities. This partnership supports our commitments to advance domestic solar manufacturing, a circular solar economy, and economic development opportunities in communities across the country. We encourage others in the industry to join us in this meaningful endeavor.”
“SolarCycle’s team is taking what we learned in the solar, sustainability, and recycling industries and applying it to our tech-driven recycling solutions. We know that scale matters in order to be able to drive costs down and bring quality up,” said Suvi Sharma, CEO and Co-Founder of SolarCycle. “We are thrilled that our partnership with Silicon Ranch–an innovative leader in bringing solar to scale sustainably and responsibly–will help us make solar across America fully sustainable.”
SolarCycle is currently the only dedicated technology-based recycling company for the solar industry. The company focuses on recycling solar panels to obtain the maximum amount of materials to go back into the supply chain, and help to build a circular economy for solar. Launched earlier this year, the company is establishing a solar panel recycling center, which will open in Q4.
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