Texas Plant Will Recycle Solar Panels at One Per Minute

Your old solar panel contains a treasure chest of silver, copper, and silicon that America desperately needs. Starting in 2027, a Texas plant will make sure those materials stay right here.

We Recycle Solar will open the first end-to-end solar panel recycling facility in the United States outside Dallas in late 2027. The 10-acre plant will process one panel every minute and recover up to 96% of its materials without sending anything overseas for finishing.

That last part changes everything. Most solar recycling today strips the aluminum frame and glass, then ships the rest abroad because recovering tiny amounts of valuable metals is expensive and complicated. Those high-value materials include silver for circuits, copper for wiring, and silicon for new panels.

The Arizona-based company says its process recovers all five key materials at commercial scale entirely on American soil. Those recycled materials can then flow back into US solar manufacturing, electronics, power grids, and other industries.

"Solar panels contain the exact critical materials the US supply chain desperately needs," said Adam Saghei, founder and CEO of We Recycle Solar. His company has already kept over 1 million panels out of landfills through resale and recycling operations.

The timing couldn't be better. About 70% of the world's solar panels were installed since 2019, and most last 25 to 35 years. That means a massive wave of retirement is coming in the 2040s and beyond.

Early retirements will speed up that timeline. Storm damage, defective installations, and upgrades to more efficient models mean panels are already reaching recycling centers well before their expiration dates.

The Ripple Effect

This isn't just about one plant in Texas. We Recycle Solar plans to invest $100 million in four more facilities across the country over the next four years, building a nationwide network that keeps critical materials cycling through American supply chains instead of disappearing overseas.

Right now, recycling a solar panel costs more than dumping it in a landfill. Recovering high-value materials at scale could flip that equation while reducing our need for newly mined metals.

The Dallas plant represents the first step toward solving a problem most people don't know exists yet: what to do with hundreds of millions of solar panels when their productive lives end.