We Recycle Solar plans first U.S. critical materials recovery plant for old solar panels

We Recycle Solar says it will open America’s first dedicated end-to-end critical materials recovery plant for retired solar panels in Texas in Q3 2027. The facility is designed to recover up to 96% of key materials, a move that could keep more solar supply chain inputs inside the U.S.

Why it matters: - The planned Texas plant could help reduce U.S. dependence on offshore processing for solar-panel materials. - We Recycle Solar says the facility will recover silver, copper, silicon, aluminum and glass from end-of-life panels and return them to domestic supply chains. - The project arrives as silver faces structural global deficits and growing supply-chain pressure tied to industrial demand. - Retired solar panels are becoming a larger source of recoverable materials as the U.S. solar fleet ages.

What happened: - We Recycle Solar announced plans for what it calls the nation’s first end-to-end critical materials recovery facility for retired solar panels. - The commercial-scale plant is scheduled to launch in Q3 2027 in Texas. - The company said the facility will process end-of-life solar panels entirely within the U.S., with zero offshore processing. - The new plant is set on a 10-acre campus outside Dallas.

The details: - The plant is designed to recover up to 96% of the silver, copper, silicon, aluminum and glass in retired solar panels. - We Recycle Solar said the facility will produce clean, market-ready critical materials for direct resale. - The plant will use a proprietary high-efficiency extraction process. - The company said the system will handle one panel per minute. - The facility is intended to bypass downstream smelting at overseas facilities. - We Recycle Solar said the new site will be the first in a planned network of high-efficiency critical materials recovery facilities. - The company plans to invest an estimated $100 million over the next four years to develop four additional U.S. locations. - The expansion will focus especially on the western U.S. - The new facilities will expand recovery beyond We Recycle Solar’s current model to include silicon, silver, copper, aluminum and glass at commercial scale. - The company said all processing will comply with applicable federal, state and local permitting requirements. - We Recycle Solar was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Yuma, Arizona. - The company says it has diverted more than 1 million panels from landfills to date.

Between the lines: - The announcement is as much about supply-chain strategy as recycling. - Silver is used in solar energy, AI infrastructure, defense systems, electronics and the power grid, making it a strategically sensitive material. - China controls an estimated 60% to 70% of global silver supply, and new export-licensing requirements introduced in January have added uncertainty to the market. - The U.S. is projected to hold the world’s largest stockpile of end-of-life solar panels behind China by 2050, worth more than $80 billion in recyclable materials. - An estimated 90% of old U.S. solar panels still go to landfills or offshore processing centers, mostly in Asia. - That means a large share of recoverable material is leaving the American supply chain today. - Adam Saghei, founder and CEO of We Recycle Solar, said no American company has been able to recover solar-panel resources at this scale and efficiency before. - Saghei said the company wants to keep the value of those materials inside the domestic supply chain.

What’s next: - We Recycle Solar plans to bring the Texas facility online in Q3 2027. - The company’s next phase is the buildout of four more U.S. sites over the following four years. - The network would create a distributed domestic system for recovering materials from end-of-life solar panels. - More information is available in the company’s announcement.

The bottom line: - We Recycle Solar is betting that solar-panel waste will become a major domestic source of critical materials — and a way to keep more of that value in the U.S. supply chain.