The Spanish government has launched a €100 million (US$117 million) aid programme to help promote the recycling and reuse of materials from renewable energy projects.
Launched by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), RENOCICLA will allocate €80 million to new investments in second-life plants and the reuse and/or recycling of solar panels, lithium batteries and wind turbine blades.
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Solar PV and energy storage recycling will have €30 million each allocated in the recycling programme. The funds will be provided through Spain’s recovery and resilience plan (PRTR) under the EU’s future resilience infrastructure fund, NextGenEU.
The programme will aim to prioritise the most advanced initiatives able to improve the treatment and recovery of obsolete renewable energy equipment – those with high percentages of reuse and recycling by weight, with a minimum varying between 65% and 85% depending on the technology. This includes the recycling of valuable materials such as lithium or lithium-ion, among others.
The remaining €20 million will be allocated to finance innovation projects in the eco-design of components and equipment for renewable energy technologies, with the goal to improve their useful life, reusability and recyclability.
Developments which increase the inclusion of secondary raw materials in manufacturing processes and reduce waste will also be eligible to participate. Among the eligible proposals are industrial research initiatives, experimental developments and feasibility studies.
Projects will be rated based on several criteria including technical rigor, economic viability, and innovative nature, among others.
Applications will be open from 8 July until 16 September 2025. For more details regarding the programme and how to participate, you can access the Institute for Diversification and Energy Saving (IDAE) website here (in Spanish). IDAE, which will manage the recycling programme, will be holding a webinar introducing the programme on Thursday 3 July between 12am and 1:15pm (CET).
The launch of the RENOCICLA programme comes only days after MITECO and IDAE officially granted nearly €300 million in renewables manufacturing. Results were unveiled earlier this year, with more than €210 million allocated for solar PV manufacturing, of which most went to Solar ingot and wafer manufacturer startup Sunwafe. The company has been granted nearly €200 million to help build a wafer manufacturing plant by 2030, which aims to reach a 20GW annual nameplate capacity.
Other upstream PV manufacturing projects awarded capacity include Dutch solar cell manufacturer MCPV and Spanish module manufacturer European Solar Cell Company (Escelco).
