Spanish waste management company Trabede and energy firm Greening Group will build a solar module recycling plant in Granada, Andalusia, Spain.
The plant is expected to begin operations in the Jerez del Marquesado municipality near Granada this month, Trabede said. The site will be able to recover “strategic” materials from recycled panels like silicon, glass and aluminium, which are standard materials to recover in module recycling. The company claims it will be able to recover up to 99% of a module’s materials.
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The company did not confirm whether it intends to feed recovered materials back into the solar supply chain in a so-called “circular economy”, but Victor Creixell, CEO of Trabede Environmental Services, said the facility “strengthens our commitment to the circular economy.”
José Manuel Ramírez, who will direct the recycling project, added: “Our goal is to turn the Jerez del Marquesado plant into a European benchmark in photovoltaic recycling.”
Ramírez added: “This facility will not only reduce the environmental impact of panels at the end of their useful life, but will also contribute to local job creation and to positioning Andalusia as a technological hub in the circular economy.”
In June, the Spanish government announced €100 million (US$117 million) in funding for solar and energy storage recycling projects. The RENOCICLA aid programme aims to prioritise the most efficient recycling and second-life methods for solar PV and energy storage.
A report from SolarPower Europe found that the recycling and decommissioning sector of the solar industry supported around 14,000 jobs in 2024. The figures remained fairly consistent from 2023 to 2024, and SolarPower Europe does not expect the emergence of “significant volumes of solar PV waste” until around 2030, when the first large-scale installations on the continent reach the end of their operational lives.
Since last year, under an amendment to the Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, the manufacturers of solar modules in the EU have been responsible for their recycling and end of life. Read more of our coverage of solar module end-of-life treatment on PV Tech Premium, here.
