Solar Recycling 101: The Good, the Bad and the Potential

Source: David Dodge · GREEN ENERGY FUTURES · | August 18, 2021

Three hundred million solar modules were installed around the world in 2020 and the number one question we hear at Green Energy Futures is what about solar recycling?

The problem with recycling solar modules is they are guaranteed to 20 to 25 years and are known to work for up to 40 years. In an industry that is really only about 10 years old, that’s quite a lag time.

There are a few start-up solar recyclers in Canada, but it’s still early days there.

There are about a dozen companies in the U.S. that call themselves solar recyclers, but only five are recognized by the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) in the U.S.

We talked to Fabtech Solar Solutions based in Phoenix, Arizona. They started up about four years ago. They’ve found almost half of the solar modules they collect as waste can be refurbished and resold in an emerging used solar market. They’ve already refurbished and resold about 600,000 solar modules to homeowners, do-it-yourselfers, and van dwellers looking for affordable solar.

But this is only part of the story. While Fabtech specializes in extracting value out of refurbishing waste solar modules, there are other companies that specialize in recycling glass, metals, and other components.

Cascade Eco Minerals based in Medford, Oregon is a division of Dlubak Specialty Glass a company with a long history in the glass business.

“We’re really focused on end of life processing the glass because these modules tend to be 65 to 85% glass by weight,” says Chris Stearns, who used to work in the solar industry, but now is Cascade’s national sales director.

Cascade recycled 5.3 million pounds of glass or about 110,000 solar modules in 2020.

They’ve developed their own proprietary process for separating the layers and elements in a solar module with a goal of 100 recycling.

The components of a solar module from Clean Energy Reviews.