Odessa center to recycle solar panels for Ørsted – EQ Mag
Wind turbines and solar panels are cropping up throughout the Permian Basin, taking advantage of the region’s open spaces, sunshine and wind to generate renewable energy.
The rise in renewable energy has been accompanied by a rise in concern about the environmental impact of solar panels and wind turbines. That is something, a leading clean energy company with a 460-megawatt solar and battery storage facility in Andrews County, plans to address.
Ørsted and Solarcycle have formed a partnership to process and recycle solar modules from Ørsted’s projects across the US. Solarcycle opened a recycling facility in Odessa last year, and this facility will recycle Ørsted’s crystalline silicon solar modules. This expands the company’s recycling efforts, which includes a recycling contract with First Solar to recycle thin-film modules.
Charlotte Bellotte, communications advisor with Ørsted, told the Reporter-Telegram by telephone that the company’s Permian Energy Center in Andrews County was just commissioned two years ago while the traditional lifespan of such installations is about 25 years.
“We won’t be looking at decommissioning for a while, but it’s important to plan for the end of life,” she said.
But more than end of life, she said Solarcycle’s Odessa facility will recycle panels that have been damaged during shipping, installation or in the course of operation.
What is attractive about Solarcycle is that it will reuse panels that may be close to end-of-life but still usable, she said. Solarcycle estimates its recycling technology can extract 95% of the value from the solar panels.
If the panel cannot be reused, the company utilizes its advanced recycling process, removing the aluminum frame and junction box, delaminating the glass and shredding the remaining panel. The shredded materials are then put through a proprietary process to recover valuable metals, such as silver and copper and separate the plastics. The materials are then returned to the supply chain.
“We opened our doors a year ago to fill a gap that I witnessed firsthand as a solar industry veteran,” Suvi Sharma, co-founder and chief executive officer of Solarcycle, told the Reporter-Telegram by email. “Since then, we have seen a high demand for our solar recycling services across the industry, and it keeps growing. Ørsted’s global commitment to recycle 100% of their panels is groundbreaking and demonstrates that planning for end-of-life is quickly becoming the industry norm.”
Today, according to Ørsted, less than 10% of all end-of-life modules are currently recycled even as the volume of end-of-life panels is forecast to increase as the market for solar installations continues to grow.
Ørsted “wants to set the standards” and see that solar panels are recycled rather than sent to the landfill, Bellotte said. The beauty of competition, she added, is that it is prompting the founding of companies like Solarcycle to develop technology and best practices for sustainable management of these panels.
Source: mrt
