Georgia factory will recycle solar panels
CEDARTOWN, Ga. — A company that recycles solar panels has announced that it will build a $344 million factory in northwest Georgia, for the first time expanding to making new glass for panels.
Arizona-based Solarcycle said it would hire more than 600 workers in Cedartown, about 50 miles northwest of Atlanta, for a factory opening in 2026. The company was founded in 2022 and opened its first recycling facility in Odessa in West Texas. This month, the company opened a headquarters, research lab and second recycling facility in Mesa, Ariz., hiring more than 100 people.
Solarcycle says its automated recycling process can extract materials worth 95% of a solar panel’s value, including silver, silicon, copper and aluminum. Solarcycle said it would be able to recycle 1 million solar panels in Cedartown. Then it plans to make enough glass for solar panels that could produce 5 gigawatts a year of electricity, using a combination of recycled glass and raw material. Solarcycle said it would sell the glass to companies that make solar panels in the United States. This month, South Koreanowned Qcells, which makes solar panels in nearby Dalton, said it had contracted with Solarcycle to recycle decommissioned Qcells panels in the U.S. Solarcycle
said it has similar contracts with more than 40 other solar energy companies. The company chose Cedartown to be close to domestic makers of solar panel, spokesperson Brooke Havlik said, saying the location offers rail and shipping infrastructure and workers.
Solarcycle has raised tens of millions of dollars from private investors for expansion, and Havlik said the Cedartown factory would largely be funded through private investment.
The company also has received $1.5 million from the U.S. Energy Department to fund research and development, and Havlik said the companies that buy Solarcycle’s glass are expanding, “largely driven by incentives and tailwinds” created by Biden administration actions.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-GA., credited President Joe Biden’s clean energy and health care law, the Inflation Reduction Act, with spurring Solarcycle’s investment, saying Georgians continue “to reap its benefits.”
But Gov. Brian Kemp has argued that Georgia’s business environment deserves credit for attacting companies such as Solarcycle and Qcells. Georgia Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson said the company approached state economic recruiters at a trade show.
“Solarcycle provides a critical piece to the integrated solar supply chain we are building in Georgia,” Wilson said in a statement.
Solarcycle didn’t say how much workers will make, describing pay and benefits only as “competitive.”
The company could qualify for $9 million in state income tax credits, at $3,000 per job over five years, as long as workers make at least $31,300 a year. The company also will receive property tax breaks from Cedartown and Polk County, said Chris Thomas, president and CEO of the Development Authority of Polk County, but he did not provide an estimate. Solarcycle said Georgia also will pay to train workers.