Solarcycle to build $344M recycled solar glass plant in Georgia

Solarcycle to build $344M recycled solar glass plant in Georgia

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Dive Brief

The maker will produce approximately 6 gigawatts of recycled solar glass yearly.

Released Feb. 29, 2024

Decommissioned photovoltaic panels at Solarcycle’s center in Odessa, Texas, prepared for recycling and reuse. The recycled solar glass maker prepares to construct a production center in Georgia.

Thanks to SolarCycle.


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Dive Brief:

  • Photovoltaic panel recycling business Solarcycle is investing $344 million to develop a solar glass production center in Cedartown, Georgiathe business revealed Feb. 15.
  • The business will utilize recycled photovoltaic panels to produce 5 to 6 gigawatts of crystalline-silicon photovoltaics, or solar glass, every year according to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp
  • The website will develop 600 tasks in production, engineering, research study and other sectors. Building and construction is anticipated to start later on this year, with production slated to begin in 2026, according to the guv’s news release.

Dive Insight:

The decommissioned solar glass will be utilized to make brand-new panels before being offered back to domestic solar producers as a method to fill a space in the U.S. photovoltaic panel supply chain, according to Solarcycle’s news release.

“The photovoltaic panel makers, what they do is they purchase completed products such as specialized solar glass or specialized frames,” Solarcycle CEO and cofounder Suvi Sharma informed Waste Dive in 2015“Today we provide into the raw product market, and after that those products get remanufactured into an end product that might enter into the solar market.”

Given that the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, Solarcycle has actually been raising funds to broaden its U.S. existence along with buy its research study and advancement.

The business closed on a $30 million Series A financinglast March to broaden recycling capability at its center in Odessa, Texas. The Odessa website, which opened in 2022, will process Denmark-based Ørsted’s decommissioned photovoltaic panels in a June 2023 contract

The business likewise got a $1.5 million grant from the Department of Energyunder the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to money its R&D on recuperating metals and products drawn out from retired photovoltaic panels.

Considering that the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act,44 solar production taskshave actually been revealed, according to ecological and financial advocacy group E2. The legislation’s push to grow photovoltaic production has actually driven need for Solarcycle’s glass, cofounder and Chief Commercial Officer Jesse Simons informed Manufacturing Dive in a Feb. 27 e-mail.

“The consumers who will purchase SOLARCYCLE’s ultra-low carbon glass are constructing or broadening centers in the United States, and this growth is mainly driven by rewards and tail winds developed by the Biden administration’s signature environment and tidy energy and facilities costs,” Simons stated.

One business making the most of the IRA is Qcells Solarcycle’s latest consumer. The business’s Cedartown solar glass center will not be far from Qcell’s 2 Georgia centers in Daltonand Cartersvillewhich will provide panels for Solarcycle to recycle.

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