Solar panel recycling industry taking shape in North America amid ‘tsunami’ of waste

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The great majority of worn and damaged panels are still dumped in landfills. But with more and more piling up, many people know that needs to change

In this desert city where Arizona, California, Sonora and Baja California meet, North America’s first utility-scale solar panel recycling plant has opened to address what founders of We Recycle Solar call a “tsunami” of solar waste. Plans to address climate change rely on massively scaling up clean, solar electricity.

These can be reused, said Adam Saghei, CEO of We Recycle Solar, and there is a market for them – clients around the world who search for refurbished panels for their affordability. The Yuma facility, he says, is like “your local thrift store that looks to upcycle.”Those that don’t go towards testing and resale head down a conveyor belt where glass, metals, and other materials with value are separated.

For Saghei, the inspiration for the company came in 2017. He was working in the computer electronic waste sector, seeing solar spread across warehouse roofs and wondering where it would go eventually. He realized green technology doesn’t stay green once it is decommissioned or retired. “The aluminum … could come back as more solar panel frames or it could go into the flight deck of a new Boeing aircraft.”

The European Union has rules that require recycling of electronic waste under its Waste Electrical and Electronic Waste Directive . Groppo estimates that in 20 years people will mine landfills to recover valuable materials in the junked panels, but “it makes an awful lot more sense for us to separate them now.”

 

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