How we Bring Solar Panel Recycling from Germany to Europe and Beyond

Recording of Thursday, May 08, 2025 | The smarter E Europe Exhibition Program 2025 | Exhibition Program | Language: English | Duration: 11:59 .

Solar Materials Co-Founder Highlights Challenges and Innovations in Solar Panel Recycling for a Circular Economy

Fridolin Franke, co-founder and negotiation director of Solar Materials, discusses the company's mission to establish a circular economy for solar panels. Founded four years ago in Magdeburg, Germany, with 45 employees and €17 million in venture capital funding, Solar Materials focuses on recycling solar panels economically. Europe has about 50 million tons of installed solar panels containing valuable materials like silver—approximately 12,000 tons worth more than Poland's annual production. However, challenges arise because over 50 thousand types of non-recyclable-designed panels exist; they vary greatly due to weathering and improper dismantling processes. Solar Materials employs mechanical processing steps alongside low-temperature thermal methods for delamination without shredding first—a unique approach compared to other research projects involving costly chemical or thermal techniques. The company plans further expansion by increasing capacity at its German site while establishing Italy’s first recycling facility next year despite regulatory hurdles related mainly around storage permits when decommissioned large-scale parks generate massive amounts quickly exceeding current capacities leading some shipments outside EU borders losing raw resources needed within Europe's geopolitical context emphasizing self-sufficiency through enforcing laws ensuring material recovery locally instead globally dispersedly lost forevermore!

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Speaker

Fridolin Franke
Business Development, Operations & Finance
Solar Materials

Talk of session: PV Recycling - Regulations, Best Practice and Available Recycling Processes

20 years or so after the first solar boom in Germany and Europe, the industry is looking how to deal with the growing number of used modules. Despite the ramp-up of PV recycling, there are still some unknowns: What are the obligations and responsibilities when it comes to PV recycling? What will happen to PV modules at the end of their service life? What practicable and sustainable solutions are there, and how can raw materials be recovered?This sessions will be providing an overview of the legal and regulatory framework conditions governing PV recycling in Europe. It will show the role that module manufacturers, wholesalers and project developers play in the end-of-life management of PV modules. This will be followed by two recycling companies presenting the state of the art of their respective recycling method and its business case.

Further Talks of this session: