Solar Panel Recycling

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Solar Panel Recycling
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Compliance

Solarpanelrecycling.com has an established internal compliance teams with decades of experience, certification management, best practices, and resources to handle high volumes of solar panels in step with the fast changing technologies and evolving regulations. Trusted by some of the largest utility and energy companies in the United States, solarpanelrecycling.com’s dedicated compliance team can assist with any transportation and recycling compliance inquiries for your project in their respective state(s).

The solar panel recycling industry, while is in its infancy stages in the US, has leaned early on solarpanelrecycling.com which has already recycled over one million pounds of solar panels, spanning multiple states, for large scale utility companies, solar installation contractors, and more. We understand the problems and challenges with solar panel recycling, including but not limited to compliant transportation of the large panels, hazardous waste management, solar farm staging and loading coordination, clean separation of commodities, decommissioning plan requirements, regulations, and more. Toxicity testing of glass and research and development of processes with a heavy focus on future Environmental Heath and Safety regulations are just a few ways we demonstrate our commitment to complaint, sustainable, service offerings.

Solar Panel Composition

There are two types of solar panels that are commonly seen in our recycling processes:

Silicon Solar Panels: Mono-crystalline and poly-crystalline

According to the US EPA, crystalline-silicon solar panels represent over 95% of solar panels sold today. SPR.COM’s early solar panel recycling processes have seen mono and poly-crystalline solar panels comprise over 90% of our throughput.

(1) 90% of c-si panel weight is glass panel, aluminum frame, silicon cells

(2)The rest is comprised of small traces of copper, zinc, lead, silver, and tin

Thin-Film Solar

According to the US EPA, thin-film solar panels, and more specifically Cadmium Telluride panels (CdTe) are the second most common solar panel after Silicon panels. Ultra-thin, semiconductor layers are stacked on top of a base material, such as glass, plastic, or metal.

·      98% of CdTe panel weight is glass, polymer, and aluminum

·      Small traces of cadmium, copper, zinc, tin and other metals.

Solar panel invertors and junction boxes contain items more easily recycled, and similar to generated output from our electronic recycling processes: PCB (circuit boards), copper wiring, plastics, and metals.

We are in our PHASE 2 of solar recycling, meaning, we can recycle over 95% of the entire panel. Glass, aluminum, plastics, silicon, and metals can be recycled and recovered. We are currently developing newer processing lines, technology, and partnerships to be strategically placed in the market for when our processed volume for silicon can be reintroduced into the solar supply chain.

Solar Panel Laws, Regulations, and Policies

Some states have enacted laws, regulations, policies, or initial research. Solarpanelrecycling.com’s internal compliance team in constantly staying current in the everchanging landscape of solar panel waste classification, transportation regulations, and more.

·       California

·       Hawaii

·       New Jersey

·       North Carolina

·       Washington

Federal and State Hazardous Waste Regulations

Federally, discarded solar panels are currently considered solid waste, and may be regulated under the RCRA Subtitle D as well as state and local programs and regulations. A solar panel is determined to hazardous waste, by failing the TCLP test or lack of, so it is important to mitigate transportation compliance and environmental risks by partnering with an experienced recycler in solarpanelrecycling.com.

At times, modules can fail TCLP with lead content, or a TCLP is not readily available, therefor solarpanelrecycling.com can help properly navigate our client through these scenarios.  Our compliance team is staying current to this everchanging landscape to assure compliance, and most importantly, promotes the recycling of solar panels versus hazardous waste landfilling.