Canadian Solar is embracing something new: recycling.
What’s happening:
- Canadian Solar (NASDAQ: CSIQ) has entered into a new partnership with SOLARCYCLE for the recycling of solar panel materials
Why it matters:
- Canadian Solar is one of the fastest growing publicly traded solar companies in North America and previously landed a strategic investment from BlackRock to accelerate building out more solar energy infrastructure
- Recycling solar panels will ensure that valuable energy transition metals such as silver, copper and aluminium will avoid ending up in landfills and can be repurposed back into new solar manufacturing within North America
By the numbers:
- SOLARCYCLE's recycling technology returns 95% of the materials from solar panels back into the supply chain
- The United States Department of Energy previously awarded SOLARCYCLE with $64M USD to advance their solar glass plant located in Georgia which manufactures new solar glass from recycled materials
- Canadian Solar currently produces 61 gigawatts of solar energy across 20 different countries
Going deeper:
- The new partnership with SOLARCYCLE positions Canadian Solar as one of the first solar module manufacturing companies in the United States to offer comprehensive materials recycling to their customers
- Solar startups and publicly traded companies have been seeing multiple strategic investors begin to take equity stakes, with Walmart (NYSE: WMT) previously making a bet on solar energy infrastructure and even Leonardo Dicaprio becoming a seed investor in Spanish solar company SolarMente
The intrigue:
- The United States Department of Defense also recently partnered with Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) to build out solar energy infrastructure to be used exclusively by the American military in North Carolina and South Carolina
