Recycling Takes Center Stage at Intersolar Forum 2025
What will happen to the 70 million metric tons of PV waste that will accumulate by 2050?
The remarkable growth of solar photovoltaic (PV) energy has positioned it as a cornerstone of the global transition towards a sustainable future. Rooftops and solar farms across the world are harnessing the power of the sun at an unprecedented scale. However, this success story comes with a looming challenge: the management of end-of-life PV modules. The staggering projection of 70 million metric tons of PV waste accumulating by 2050, starkly highlighted by Sangeetha Suresh from EUPD Research at the Intersolar Forum 2025, underscores the critical importance of establishing robust and efficient PV recycling infrastructure and processes.
The Intersolar Forum 2025, held in conjunction with Intersolar Europe 2025, provided a central platform for industry leaders, researchers, and innovators to address this pressing issue. Exhibitors from the burgeoning PV recycling sector were out in force, demonstrating their commitment to finding sustainable solutions for this growing waste stream. During a dedicated forum session, key players including PV Cycle, Reiling PV-Recycling, and Solar Materials took center stage to elucidate the crucial aspects of PV recycling, ranging from navigating complex regulations and implementing best practices to detailing the intricate processes involved in recovering valuable materials. Their presentations illuminated the path towards a circular economy for solar energy, a necessity for ensuring the long-term environmental sustainability of this vital renewable resource.
Navigating the Regulatory Landscape: The WEEE Directive and Extended Producer Responsibility
The discussion at the Intersolar Forum 2025 commenced with a crucial overview of the regulatory framework governing PV recycling. Jan Clyncke from PV Cycle, a pan-European association operating a comprehensive collection network across the PV and waste management industries, provided a detailed presentation on the Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. This pivotal directive sets the standards for the recovery and disposal of waste electrical and electronic equipment, and significantly includes the principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR).
Under the EPR framework, manufacturers and importers of PV modules bear the responsibility for financing the environmentally sound management of the products they introduce into the European Union at the end of their life cycle. This necessitates that these companies guarantee the collection, treatment, recovery, and environmentally sound disposal of the PV modules they have imported. Clyncke emphasized that a pivotal aspect of effective PV recycling, as championed by PV Cycle, involves a thorough assessment of the material composition of PV modules. While approximately 78 percent of a standard module is composed of glass, significant quantities of aluminum, various metals (including valuable silver and silicon), and plastics also constitute the remaining components. The subsequent step for recycling companies involves meticulously estimating the amount of valuable and reusable materials contained within a PV module, along with evaluating the quality and purity in which these materials can be recovered. Analyzing these critical factors allows recyclers to draw informed conclusions regarding the economic viability of recycling specific PV modules and to determine the most appropriate and efficient recycling procedures to employ.
Pioneering Processes and Material Recovery: Innovations from Reiling PV-Recycling
Reiling PV-Recycling, a recognized pioneer in the PV recycling sector in Germany, operates a state-of-the-art plant with an impressive annual recycling capacity of 50,000 metric tons. Karsten Wambach, an R&D Consultant commissioned by Reiling PV-Recycling, shared valuable insights during the Intersolar Forum 2025, explaining the company’s ongoing efforts to optimize two key aspects of their PV recycling process: enhancing the quality of recovered glass and improving the recovery rates of valuable silicon and silver.
Reiling PV-Recycling employs a sophisticated procedure that begins with the complete mechanical shredding of the entire PV module. Following this initial stage, the various components are then carefully separated and sorted using advanced techniques. This comprehensive approach enables the company to achieve an impressive recycling rate of up to 85 percent of the initial module weight. According to Wambach, the high-quality recycled end products are subsequently processed and utilized in a diverse range of industries. For instance, the recovered glass is primarily repurposed as foam glass, a lightweight and insulating material. The recovered aluminum and silicon find their way back into the manufacturing industry, with promising potential applications even in the burgeoning battery production sector. During his presentation, Wambach also stressed a critical logistical challenge in PV recycling: transportation. He highlighted that transport costs represent a significant economic driver and are also a major factor contributing to module damage during transit, making them considerably more challenging and costly to process. This underscores the importance of early engagement and close collaboration between solar farm operators or individuals with end-of-life modules and specialized PV recycling companies to optimize logistics and minimize damage.
Maximizing High-Quality Material Recovery: The Approach of Solar Materials
Fridolin Franke, CMO and Co-Founder of Solar Materials, a dynamic start-up company based in Magdeburg, Germany, presented his company’s innovative approach to PV recycling at the Intersolar Forum 2025. The core aim of Solar Materials is to recover the maximum possible amount of high-quality materials from end-of-life PV modules. To achieve this ambitious goal, Solar Materials employs a combination of both mechanical and thermal processing methods. A key element of their process is a specialized delamination technique specifically designed to detach the valuable silver coating from the solar cells.
This innovative approach enables Solar Materials to currently recycle an impressive 350,000 solar panels annually. Furthermore, the company is on the verge of a significant expansion, with plans to soon open the very first dedicated PV recycling site in Italy. During his presentation, Franke also drew attention to the considerable regulatory hurdles faced when storing large quantities of used PV modules. In Germany, current regulations mandate a special permit for storing more than 100 metric tons of these modules, a process that can unfortunately take up to 12 months to navigate. This presents a significant challenge considering that the dismantling of a single large-scale solar farm can generate up to 4,000 metric tons of used modules. Consequently, recycling companies in Germany are currently encountering capacity limitations, leading to a concerning situation where significant volumes of PV modules are potentially being shipped unchecked to disposal sites in non-EU countries with less stringent environmental regulations. Franke emphasized that the limited availability of critical resources such as silver within the European Union further underscores the urgent need to prevent this unsustainable practice and to adapt regulations accordingly to facilitate and incentivize domestic PV recycling.
Conclusion: Forging a Circular Future for Solar Energy
The discussions and presentations at the Intersolar Forum 2025 powerfully highlighted the increasing urgency and importance of developing a robust and sustainable circular economy for the solar PV industry. As the volume of end-of-life modules continues to grow exponentially, the insights shared by PV Cycle, Reiling PV-Recycling, and Solar Materials provide a crucial roadmap for navigating the regulatory landscape, implementing innovative recycling processes, and maximizing the recovery of valuable materials. Addressing the logistical challenges and streamlining permitting processes are essential steps in scaling up PV recycling capacity and preventing the unchecked disposal of valuable resources. The commitment and innovation showcased at the forum underscore the industry’s growing recognition that responsible end-of-life management is not just an environmental imperative but also a significant opportunity to create a truly sustainable and resource-efficient solar energy ecosystem for the future.