North Georgia solar manufacturing giant Qcells announced a new partnership Monday to recycle the panels it produces and return most of the used materials to the supply chain.
Qcells said it will work with Solarcycle — a solar recycling firm with facilities in Odessa, Texas, and Mesa, Arizona, — to keep damaged or decommissioned panels out of landfills.
With a patented extraction technology they say allows them to reclaim more than 95% of a solar module’s value, Solarcycle will recycle aluminum, silver, copper, silicon and low-iron glass from Qcells’ panels. Recycling reduces the need for mining and will help ensure a stable, domestic supply of raw materials, the companies say.
Solarcycle already has partnerships in place with more than 40 U.S. solar firms, but the companies said their collaboration is the first between a recycler and a large solar manufacturer.
Qcells’ existing factory in Dalton, which can assemble 5.1 gigawatts of panels a year, is the largest silicon-based manufacturing plant in the U.S. As part of a $2.5 billion investment in expanding its Georgia footprint announced in January 2023, the company is building another, larger facility 35 miles south in Cartersville.