Solarcycle

Founded in 2022, Solarcycle offers solutions for retiring solar panels and repurposing them for new uses. The company claims its proprietary technology allows it to extract 95% of a solar panel's valuable metals, such as silver, silicon, copper, and aluminum, which allows the recycling or repurposing of the panels currently in use.

In 2022, Solarcycle opened its first solar recycling facility on 15 acres in Odessa, Texas, with the capacity to process 150,000 panels per year. In February 2024, Solarcycle opened its second facility in Mesa, Arizona that will initially recycle 250,000 solar panels each year, and ramp to one million panels per year. During the same period, Solarcycle announced plans for a new facility in Georgia with a capacity to produce five to six gigawatts of solar glass annually. Construction is scheduled to commence in 2024, with operations expected to start in 2026.

Key customers and partnerships

• In May 2022, Solarcycle launched its operations with Sunrun as its first partner, the leading home solar, battery storage, and energy services provider, to use retired solar panels from Sunrun's portfolio to test, reuse, and upcycle them. 

• In September 2022, the company partnered with Silicon Ranch Corporation, one of the largest independent power producers, to process end-of-life solar modules from Silicon Ranch projects through Solarcycle’s recycling platform. 

• In May 2023, the company signed a Recycling Services Agreement with the AES Corporation, a global energy company, and launched a pilot program to assess construction breakage and end-of-life solar panel waste across the AES’s portfolio.

• In June 2023, the company partnered with Orsted, a leading clean energy company, to process and recycle Orsted's end-of-life solar modules from its projects across the US.

• In September 2023, the company partnered with Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company, a sustainable infrastructure company, to recycle the latter's decommissioned solar panels. 

• In November 2023, Solarcycle partnered with EDF Renewables North America, a leading renewable energy developer, to recycle damaged or unusable solar panels from various solar sites.

• In February 2024, the company partnered with clean energy company Qcells to recycle decommissioned solar panels.

• In March 2024, the company  expanded its partnership with Silfab Solar, a manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) solar systems, to purchase ultra-low-carbon domestic glass for solar panels.

Funding and financials

Solarcycle raised USD 30 million in Series A funding, consisting of both equity and infrastructure financing, led by Fifth Wall and HG Ventures in March 2023. 

Key competitors: None comparable (Solarcycle’s product focus is unique)