US solar PV recycling firm Solarcycle has signed an exclusive “recycling services” agreement with California-based real estate company Prologis, which operates more than 1GW of rooftop solar capacity in the US.
Prologis currently operates energy systems including solar and co-located battery energy storage systems (BESS) at more than 500 buildings in the US, and was ranked the number two company in the US for installed corporate solar capacity by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) in 2024. The companies said they will deliver a “consistent process” for recycling these assets once they reach the ends of their operational lives.
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“We’ve built one of the largest distributed solar portfolios in the country, and managing it responsibly requires a full lifecycle approach, from development through end of life,” said Alta Yen, head of energy, US, at Prologis.
Solarcycle added that the deal is an effort to manage “the full lifecycle” of solar modules, from manufacturing and deployment to end-of-life treatment, which is becoming increasingly integral to solar asset management.
Earlier this year, the company started commercial options at its Cedartown recycling facility in the US state of Georgia, and the addition of new recycling capacity could be vital in the growing US solar sector; figures from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecast 70GW of new operational solar capacity additions by 2027.
The company also noted that it expects its deal with Prologis to generate “a predictable volume of materials” from the recycled panels, which is an important step in building a business case for solar panel recycling more broadly. Materials recovered by Solarcycle will be processed for use “within domestic supply chains”, according to the company.
Solarcycle is currently building a recycled solar glass production facility in the US, which will see it produce new glass from recycled solar modules. In August 2025, it announced the successful production of a test module using recycled glass, which it said showed “peak performance” comparable with new products.
Earlier this year, Dr. Jan-Philipp Mai, CEO of German solar panel recycling firm Solar Materials, told PV Tech Premium that the growth of recycling has created “a completely new business case” for those keen to make money from the solar industry.
Indeed, last week, PV Tech Premium heard from another US panel recycling firm Comstock about the value that recovered and reused materials can bring to the solar industry. Figures from the American Clean Power Association (ACP) suggest that the value of recoverable materials from decommissioned panels to reach US$15 billion by 2050, enough to fund the development of two billion new panels.
