WRS to recycle one solar panel per minute in Texas — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- We Recycle Solar (WRS) says it will open what it describes as the first US end-to-end critical-materials recovery plant for retired solar panels in Q3 2027, on a 10-acre site outside Dallas.
- The Texas facility will process one panel per minute and recover up to 96% of materials — silver, copper, silicon, aluminum, and glass — at commercial scale and without requiring downstream smelting at an overseas facility.
- Conventional US solar recycling focuses on aluminum frames and glass, which make up most of a panel's weight but are not its most valuable components; recovering usable silver, copper, and silicon is more complex and expensive, and currently costs more than landfilling panels.
- WRS says it has already diverted more than 1 million panels from landfills through its existing decommissioning, recycling, resale, and remarketing operations, and plans to invest around $100 million in four additional US facilities over the next four years, though locations are undisclosed.
- The US Department of Energy notes roughly 70% of the world's solar projects have been installed since 2019, and panels typically last 25–35 years — meaning the volume of panels reaching end of life will climb sharply over the next several decades, amplified by weather damage, installation defects, and early replacement with more efficient models.
Why it matters: Solar recycling today is dominated by overseas smelters that strip out only the heavy, low-value glass and aluminum, while the silver, copper, and silicon that US manufacturers need get shipped abroad or landfilled. A domestic plant recovering 96% of materials at one panel per minute — backed by a planned $100 million, four-plant expansion — directly feeds silver, copper, and silicon back into US supply chains just as the first wave of a multi-decade solar waste surge begins.
Ask SkimNews
