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Solar Panel Recycler to Invest $62M in Verticalized Georgia Facility
Kate Nishimura
4 min read
The clock is quickly running down on climate-related sustainability goals. And as corporations race against time to accelerate circular processes and transition to green energy, solar panel recycling firm Solarcycle is expanding its services to meet growing demand.
The Arizona-based company has announced plans to invest $62 million into growing its solar panel recycling capacity in Polk County, Ga. to 10 million units per year, according to the state’s Governor, Brian Kemp.
The facility will be located across the street from Solarcycle’s previously announced 1.1-million-square-foot solar glass factory, creating an additional 640 jobs on top of the 617 already needed to staff that location. According to Kemp, the glass factory will use recycled materials from the recycling facility to create five to six gigawatts worth of new solar glass each year, making Solarcycle one of the first and only manufacturers of specialized glass for crystalline-silicon (c-Si) photovoltaics in the nation.
The recycling facility will eventually have the capacity to recycle and recover materials from 10 million solar panels each year—and by 2030, it will be able to process up to 30 percent of the country’s retired solar panels. Upon launch sometime in the second half of 2025, Solarcycle said it would have the ability to recycle 2 million panels, a number that will scale over the ensuing years.
“As Georgia continues to lead the nation in attracting jobs from emerging industries, we’re thankful Solarcycle is moving up creation of these opportunities in northwest Georgia, benefitting that entire region’s economy,” Kemp said Monday. “I want to thank our local and state partners who made this accelerated growth in Polk County possible, and I look forward to its impact in the years to come.”
Georgia ranks in the top 10 states in the U.S. for installed solar power, and it comes in No. 7 in cumulative solar capacity, the Solar Energy Industries Association said. The Peach State is bullish about accelerating the development of renewable energy products through investments in its infrastructure network, according to the governor.
“We applaud Governor Kemp for his leadership supporting clean energy policy that has made it possible to scale solar manufacturing in the state, and bring good jobs and meaningful investment to local communities as a result,” Solarcycle co-founder and CEO Suvi Sharma said.
With the partnership of local government and the growing demand for solar recycling and domestic manufacturing, “we will be able to scale operations and begin hiring sooner than originally planned,” he added.
The chief executive in October said that “By scaling recycling and solar glass manufacturing through a vertically integrated process, we are filling a critical gap in America’s solar supply chain and closing the loop for domestic solar manufacturing.”
According to Sharma, the firm has acquired an existing 255,000-square-foot building in Cedartown, Ga. for the recycling operations that is adjacent to the solar glass manufacturing facility already under construction at Cedartown North Business Park, a Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development (GRAD) certified site.
Solarcycle said the facility will be operational by fall of next year, and it’s already looking to staff up with full-time manufacturing, engineering, management, research and design and support roles.
Chris Thomas, president and CEO of Development Authority of Polk County, an independent economic development group, praised the company for underscoring its circular mission by refurbishing a vacant facility to create new employment opportunities in the area. “This expansion not only underscores the confidence that businesses have in our community as a place to invest but also promises significant economic benefits,” he said.
Georgia Department of Economic Development commissioner Pat Wilson said the group’s technology is essential to the movement toward a circular economy “because it takes materials that would otherwise end up in a landfill and puts them back in the supply chain, effectively reducing our reliance on importing new materials.”
“Northwest Georgia has been a center of manufacturing in Georgia for decades—from providing the flooring we use in our homes and offices to now producing technology for clean energy to power those same buildings,” he said. “We are excited that our partners and Solarcycle were able to work together to bring the company’s recycling operations online earlier.”
Recently, U.S. brands and companies doing business stateside are turning to solar power and green energy to offset their carbon impact. Last month, Swedish fast-fashion giant H&M inked a power purchase agreement that will enable the construction of a new solar plant in Texas. Meanwhile, Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman owner Tapestry last fall signed on with renewable solar power provider Pivot Energy to purchase 15 years of Impact Renewable Energy Credits (REC) produced by six community solar projects in Illinois.
