Solar Recycling

The global solar industry is approaching a critical inflection point: the first large-scale wave of end-of-life solar panels — installed during the boom years of 2005–2015 — is now reaching the end of its operational life. By 2030, the world will generate an estimated 8 million tonnes of solar panel waste annually. REC 2 is building the infrastructure and technology partnerships to capture this material stream before it becomes an environmental liability.

Modern crystalline silicon panels contain recoverable silicon (92%), aluminium frames (8%), silver (0.1%), copper and glass. REC 2 invests in thermal, mechanical and chemical delamination processes that recover these materials at commercially viable purities. The recovered silver and silicon are particularly valuable — silver at spot price, and high-purity recycled silicon increasingly accepted by panel manufacturers as a feedstock.

Solar recycling also intersects with REC 2's broader circular economy thesis. Waste heat from thermal delamination can be recovered via organic Rankine cycle systems. Recovered glass finds applications in construction and advanced materials. Our energy recycling framework maps these industrial symbiosis opportunities to maximise value across the full panel lifecycle.