Suvi Sharma is the CEO and Co-Founder at SOLARCYCLE.
SOLARCYCLE is an emerging leader in the nascent category of solar panel recycling. The astounding ramp of solar panels deployed across the world rivals almost any technology adoption curve in history, and it's far from over. There were only five gigawatts of solar deployed globally between 2000 and 2005. By the end of 2025, a mere 20 years later, there will be around 2,000 gigawatts of solar deployed globally, and the growth is expected to continue to be exponential. That's billions and billions of panels that collectively make up a few hundred thousand square miles of space. And given the rate of installation, most of these panels are early in their expected lifespans. So, what happens when they do hit the end of life? Surely they aren't going to just be landfilled, right? Right? That's what Suvi's here to about.
In this episode, we cover:
- [01:16] Solar panel deployment vs. end-of-life lag
- [03:40] Billions of panels, billions of square feet
- [05:11] 1.2B panels produced annually—set to triple
- [07:06] Why is now the time to build recycling
- [08:36] Who’s responsible for end-of-life? Developers
- [9:36] Federal and state regulatory requirements
- [10:46] Why landfilling is harder than it looks
- [12:44] What makes solar panels tough to recycle
- [14:01] The high-value metals: silver, copper, aluminum
- [16:17] How SOLARCYCLE’s proprietary process works
- [18:01] The company’s customer base
- [19:18] Over 1M panels recycled in 2024
- [20:44] Future opportunities in solar + storage recycling
- [21:57] SOLARCYCLE’s funding to date
- [24:55] Commodity markets for recycled materials
- [26:39] What’s holding back growth for panel recycling
- [30:05] SOLARCYCLE is hiring
- [33:54] Panels as feedstock materials for domestic manufacturing
Episode recorded on May 22, 2025 (Published on June 30, 2025)
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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
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