OAKLAND, CA, MAY 5, 2022 – Today SOLARCYCLE, Inc formally announced the launch of its new technology-driven recycling platform designed to maximize solar sustainability. The company, based in Northern California, was founded by experts in solar energy, sustainability and advanced recycling technologies – industry pioneers from leading institutions such as Solaria, NEXTracker, Sierra Club and the University of New South Wales. SOLARCYCLE aims to be the partner of choice for solar asset owners looking for a comprehensive, low-cost and sustainable solution to their end-of-life system needs.
SOLARCYCLE is launching its operations with Sunrun (NASDAQ: RUN), the nation’s leading home solar, battery storage and energy services provider, as its first partner. Both companies are strongly committed to building a solar industry that embraces a more sustainable, circular and domestic supply chain. SOLARCYCLE is using second-life panels from Sunrun to innovate and develop new ways to test, reuse and upcycle the retired solar panels in Sunrun’s project portfolio. This partnership will pave the way for a scalable solution that will be available to the entire industry by year’s end.
“As Sunrun deploys PV systems at the scale needed to confront the climate crisis, we’ve embraced the responsibility and opportunity of managing the full lifecycle of our hardware,” said Mary Powell, CEO, Sunrun. “We are committed to sustainable end-of-life processes and excited to partner with an innovative company that shares our vision and is dedicated to creating a circular supply chain for the solar industry.”
“We’re proud to be leveraging the engineering and operational excellence we’ve learned from manufacturing modules and applying that to giga-scale PV recycling. In doing so, we’re bolstering a circular economy that reuses existing domestic materials and minerals, and enhances the entire solar supply chain. We’re thrilled to be working with Sunrun–a sophisticated company that shares our mission of ensuring a renewable and resilient energy future– as our strategic partner,” said Suvi Sharma, SOLARCYCLE’s co-founder and CEO.
“Sustainability is vital to the continued success of solar power deployment worldwide,” said SOLARCYCLE co-founder and CCO Jesse Simons, who for 20 years led the Sierra Club’s efforts to move the world towards 100% clean energy before joining SOLARCYCLE. “Solar power is one of the most powerful tools humanity has in our fight against climate change. For solar to truly scale to its full potential, we need to create renewable supply chains and a vibrant secondary market for used panels and recycled materials.”
“We have designed an advanced recycling solution that extracts the maximum value from every panel at the lowest possible cost. Our proprietary processes allow us to recover more than 95% of the vital materials needed for the rapid transition towards 100% clean energy – including silicon, silver, copper and aluminum. By vertically integrating our operations into a factory that can process gigawatts of solar annually, we can radically reduce costs and the climate impacts of the recycling process,” said Pablo Dias, co-founder and CTO of SOLARCYCLE, who has extensive experience in e-waste and solar recycling.
About SOLARCYCLE, Inc.
SOLARCYCLE, Inc (www.SOLARCYCLE.us) is a technology-driven platform designed to maximize solar sustainability by offering solar asset owners a low-cost, eco-friendly, comprehensive process for recycling retiring solar panels and technologies and repurposing them for new uses. The company’s proprietary technology allows it to extract valuable metals such as silver, silicon, copper and aluminum and to recycle or repurpose 95% of panels currently in use. SOLARCYCLE was founded in 2022 by experts in solar technology, recycling and sustainability to accelerate build-out of the circular economy for solar and renewables.
About Sunrun
Sunrun Inc. (Nasdaq: RUN) is the nation’s leading home solar, battery storage, and energy services company. Founded in 2007, Sunrun pioneered home solar service plans to make local clean energy more accessible to everyone for little to no upfront cost. Sunrun’s innovative home battery solutions bring families affordable, resilient, and reliable energy. The company can also manage and share stored solar energy from the batteries to provide benefits to households, utilities, and the electric grid while reducing our reliance on polluting energy sources. For more information, please visit www.sunrun.com.
