What will happen to the 70 million metric tons of PV waste that will accumulate by 2050? Armed with this figure, Sangeetha Suresh from EUPD Research underlined the importance of PV recycling by way of introduction at the Intersolar Forum 2025. Exhibitors from this business sector were out in force at Intersolar Europe 2025. During the Intersolar Forum, PV Cycle, Reiling PV-Recycling and Solar Materials explained the key points relating to regulations, best practice and the processes involved in PV recycling.
What guidelines apply to PV recycling? Jan Clyncke from PV Cycle, a pan-European association that operates a collection network calling at various points in the PV and waste management industries, first presented the Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive at the Intersolar Forum. This directive governs the recovery and disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment and includes the so-called extended producer responsibility, whereby manufacturers and importers of PV modules must guarantee the disposal of the products they have imported into the EU.
According to Clyncke, however, the approach – which the recycling company sees as pivotal when recycling PV – involves assessing the material composition of PV modules. Around 78 percent of the module is made from glass, with other parts made from aluminum, metals and plastic. The next step entails the recycling company estimating how much valuable, reusable material is contained in a PV module and what quality this is available in. Analyzing all these factors allows conclusions to be drawn as to whether, and via which procedure, PV modules can be recycled in an economically viable way.
The company Reiling PV-Recycling is a pioneer in the PV recycling sector in Germany and operates a plant that recycles 50,000 metric tons a year. Karsten Wambach, R&D Consultant commissioned by Reiling PV-Recycling, explained during the Intersolar Forum that the company is currently adjusting two aspects of PV recycling: optimizing the quality of recovered glass and improving the recovery of silicon and silver. The company uses a procedure whereby the module is first completely shredded mechanically, before the components are then sorted. This enables a recycling rate of 85 percent to be achieved. According to Wambach, the recycled end products are subsequently processed in various industries. Recycled glass is primarily used as foam glass, while aluminum and silicon are used in the manufacturing industry and potentially even in battery production. During his presentation at the Intersolar Forum, Wambach emphasized the importance of logistics for PV recycling. He stressed that transport is not only a major cost driver, but also the reason why many modules arrive damaged at the recycler, making them far more difficult to process. This is why it is important to get in contact with the recycling company as early as possible.
Fridolin Franke, CMO and Co-Founder of Solar Materials, presented his company’s approach – the aim of which is to recover as many high-quality materials as possible – at the Intersolar Forum 2025. Solar Materials, a start-up company from Magdeburg, uses both mechanical and thermal methods to achieve this and opts for a special delamination process to detach the silver coating. This enables the company to recycle 350,000 solar panels a year and it is soon set to open the very first PV recycling site in Italy. During his presentation, Franke pointed out the regulatory challenges when storing large quantities of used modules. In Germany, the regulations require a special permit to store more than 100 metric tons of modules, which can take up to 12 months to obtain. But dismantling a single solar farm generates up to 4,000 metric tons of used modules, meaning recycling companies in Germany are currently hitting their capacity limits and PV modules are arriving unchecked at disposal sites in non-EU countries. The limited availability of resources such as silver in the EU is another reason why this should be prevented as a matter of urgency and the regulations changed accordingly.
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