Solar manufacturer Qcells has launched a recycling arm, called EcoRecycle, and a recycling plant in the US state of Georgia.
Located in the same county, Cartersville, as the company’s vertically-integrated – from wafers to modules – solar manufacturing plant with an annual nameplate capacity of 3.3GW when fully operational, the recycling plant will launch this year with plans to expand its recycling network across the US. In the same state of Georgia, the company also has a module assembly plant with an annual nameplate capacity of 5.1GW in Dalton.
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At full capacity, the recycling plant will have an annual capacity of 250MW of solar panel recycling, around 500,000 panels per year. It will be able to repurpose materials such as aluminium, glass, silver and copper.
Kelly Weger, Senior Director of Sustainability at Qcells said that the launch of EcoRecycle places Qcells as the first crystalline silicon solar panel producer to possess a full value chain “conducting both solar panel manufacturing and recycling on US soil.”
Qcells aims to focus EcoRecycle on three key initiatives: cost-saving take-back services with low recycling fees; proprietary high-purity resource separation technology to maximize material recovery, reuse and sustainability in solar recycling; and reducing carbon emissions in solar panels production through the use of recycled resources.
“As the US moves towards a more sustainable and self-reliant solar industry, EcoRecycle by Qcells is committed to pioneering innovative recycling technologies that not only reduce environmental impact, but also create economic opportunities,” said Jung-Kwon Hong, Head of Qcells Manufacturing Group.
“Through strategic investments and cutting-edge solutions, we are positioning ourselves as a leader in the circular economy, ensuring that solar energy remains a truly renewable and responsible power source.”
This is not the first foray into solar recycling for the solar manufacturer. Last year, the company had signed an agreement with Texas-based solar recycling firm Solarcycle to recycle Qcells’ decommissioned modules in the US. Since then, Solarcycle has made several other PV recycling agreements with other solar manufacturers in the US with Silfab Solar, Canadian Solar, Heliene and Runergy.
Solarcycle has recycling facilities in Texas and Arizona, while in October 2024 it unveiled plans to build a 5GW solar panel recycling plant in Cedatorwn, Georgia. Once fully operational the plant will have the capacity to recycle ten million solar panels annually, with capacity initially begin at two million per year. This facility will be adjacent to a solar glass recycling factory, which will produce specialised glass for crystalline-silicon (C-Si) PV modules and will have a similar capacity with 5-6GW of solar glass annually.
