Mesa, Arizona (April 19, 2024) -- The U.S. Department of Energy today announced that SOLARCYCLE is the recipient of more than $64 million in Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credits (48C) for the company’s upcoming, state-of-the-art $344 million solar glass plant in Cedartown, Georgia.
The company’s third facility, announced in February, will be the first-of-its-kind and create some of the cleanest solar glass in the world by using recycled glass from retired solar systems as an input. Compared to imported solar glass, SOLARCYCLE’s ultra-low carbon product will help the United States reduce trade risk, increase innovation and energy resiliency, and create benefits for the U.S. economy.
The Georgia-based facility will also create hundreds of high-quality jobs in the solar industry, contributing to the development of Georgia as a regional hub of solar innovation. Working with Georgia Northwestern Technical College (GNTC), the State of Georgia, and other community organizations, SOLARCYCLE will offer 60 apprenticeship positions to ensure that training is available for students of all economic backgrounds.
“SOLARCYCLE and our industry partners are working day and night to ensure that the United States has a resilient, circular solar supply chain,” said Suvi Sharma, CEO and Co-Founder of SOLARCYCLE. “The IRA’s tax credits will allow our company to rapidly respond to the supply chain needs of domestic solar manufacturers who urgently need a trusted and sustainable domestic recycler that is using old solar materials to make new, ultra-low carbon glass in America. We thank and applaud the Biden-Harris administration and the Department of Energy for their investment in clean energy manufacturing.”
48C is an allocated tax credit funded through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and aimed at accelerating clean energy manufacturing and recycling and reducing greenhouse gas emissions at industrial facilities.
The solar glass plant, which will be the first of SOLARCYCLE’s facilities to manufacture glass in addition to recycling solar panels, is scheduled to begin construction in 2024 and will be operational in 2026. SOLARCYCLE has already secured agreements with domestic manufacturers who will purchase the company’s ultra-low carbon domestic glass, including Silfab Solar.
By purchasing SOLARCYCLE’s domestically made ultra-low carbon glass, domestic manufacturers can reduce the climate impacts created during manufacturing by over 30% and from shipping by more than 50%.
About SOLARCYCLE
SOLARCYCLE is a technology-driven company 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 up to 95% of the value of a solar panel’s materials, such as silver, silicon, copper and aluminum, and to recycle or repurpose panels for new uses. Experts in solar technology, recycling and sustainability founded SOLARCYCLE in 2022 to accelerate the circular economy for solar and renewables. www.SOLARCYCLE.us.
