SOLARCYCLE Inc. has formally launched its new technology-driven recycling platform designed to maximize solar sustainability.
The company, based in northern California, was founded by experts from institutions such as Solaria, NEXTracker, Sierra Club and the University of New South Wales. SOLARCYCLE aims to be the partner of choice for solar asset owners looking for a comprehensive, low-cost and sustainable solution to their end-of-life system needs.
SOLARCYCLE is launching its operations with Sunrun, a home solar, battery storage and energy services provider, as its first partner. SOLARCYCLE is using second-life panels from Sunrun to innovate and develop new ways to test, reuse and upcycle the retired solar panels in Sunrun’s project portfolio.
“As Sunrun deploys PV systems at the scale needed to confront the climate crisis, we’ve embraced the responsibility and opportunity of managing the full lifecycle of our hardware,” says Mary Powell, CEO of Sunrun. “We are committed to sustainable end-of-life processes and excited to partner with an innovative company that shares our vision and is dedicated to creating a circular supply chain for the solar industry.”
“We’re proud to be leveraging the engineering and operational excellence we’ve learned from manufacturing modules and applying that to giga-scale PV recycling,” states Suvi Sharma, SOLARCYCLE’s co-founder and CEO. “In doing so, we’re bolstering a circular economy that reuses existing domestic materials and minerals, and enhances the entire solar supply chain.”
“Sustainability is vital to the continued success of solar power deployment worldwide,” comments SOLARCYCLE co-founder and CCO Jesse Simons, who for 20 years led the Sierra Club’s efforts to move the world towards 100% clean energy before joining SOLARCYCLE. “Solar power is one of the most powerful tools humanity has in our fight against climate change. For solar to truly scale to its full potential, we need to create renewable supply chains and a vibrant secondary market for used panels and recycled materials.”
“We have designed an advanced recycling solution that extracts the maximum value from every panel at the lowest possible cost,” mentions Pablo Dias, co-founder and CTO of SOLARCYCLE. “Our proprietary processes allow us to recover more than 95% of the vital materials needed for the rapid transition towards 100% clean energy – including silicon, silver, copper and aluminum. By vertically integrating our operations into a factory that can process gigawatts of solar annually, we can radically reduce costs and the climate impacts of the recycling process.”
