Clean energy company Ørsted has committed to reuse or recycle all solar panels from its global operations, claiming it is the first energy developer to do so. It has partnered with technology-based solar recycling company Solarcycle to process and recycle solar panels in the US.
The agreement provides Ørsted with recycling solutions for crystalline silicon solar modules. Solarcycle reported that Ørsted has already recycled 4,000 panels, even though the company’s US solar projects are still under development.
The partnership builds on a recycling contract of thin-film modules with US-based manufacturer First Solar in 2021.
“Addressing the most critical waste problem of the solar industry while mitigating social and environmental impacts in the supply chain is essential,” said Ingrid Reumert, Ørsted’s senior vice-president, in a statement. “This is an industry-first commitment and complements our already existing ambition to reuse or recycle all wind turbine blades.”
“Recycling solar modules can contribute to a domestic supply of materials essential to [producing] new solar panels, including glass, silicon, and valuable metals such as silver, copper and aluminium,” Solarcycle said in a statement. “This reduces waste and mining of raw resources that must be extracted and refined.”
It said the company’s recycling technology could extract 95% of the value from end-of-life solar panels. For panels that cannot be reused, the company will run them through its advanced recycling facility in Texas, removing the aluminium frame and junction box, and shredding the remainder.
“Today’s announcement also demonstrates that the industry no longer sees recycling as an afterthought, but it is rapidly becoming the norm to plan for end-of-life practices years in advance,” Suvi Sharma, Solarcycle’s CEO and co-founder, added.
Reusing and recycling solar panels remains limited, with landfilling still common practice. This means valuable raw materials are go to waste.
Ørsted has been growing its onshore portfolio in the past few years with the ambition of reaching 17.5GW of wind and solar PV capacity globally by 2030.
