Solarcycle to build solar glass factory in Georgia, recycle Qcells panels

February turns out to be a busy month for US solar system recycling platform Solarcycle which unveiled a plan for its first gigawatt-scale solar glass manufacturing plant in the state of Georgia that will use recycled materials, as well as a new solar panel recycling deal with Qcells.

Solarcycle is set to invest an estimated USD 344 million (EUR 319.5m) in a solar glass factory in the city of Cedartown in Polk County which will use recycled materials from retired solar panels to make new solar glass, according to a statement published on Thursday.

The new facility will position the company as one of the first makers of specialised glass for crystalline-silicon (c-Si) photovoltaics in the US. The site will target an annual production capacity of 5 GW to 6 GW worth of solar glass which will be sold directly back to the domestic market to fill a critical gap in the country’s supply chain.

In addition, Dalton, Georgia-based Qcells, a subsidiary of Seoul-based Hanwha Solutions Corp (KRX:009830), has chosen Solarcycle to recycle its decommissioned, owned and installed solar panels in the US. The recycled materials from Qcells’ panels, such as aluminium, silver, copper, silicon and low-iron glass, will be reused locally to make clean energy products.

The partnership will support Qcells’s plan to establish a complete and sustainable solar supply chain in the US as announced about a year ago.

Founded in 2022, Solarcycle claims that its proprietary technology can extract 95% of the value of a solar panel’s materials, in comparison to the current industry standard of around 50%. The company currently has facilities in Odessa, Texas, and Mesa, Arizona, as well as partnership contracts with more than 40 solar energy companies.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.928)

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